Kill Her Tomorrow
by Anon465
Summary: Kankuro gets sent on a mission to the Land of Snow by Gaara to steal a scroll from a heavily guarded bank. Just when he thought the mission was going to be successful, things didn't go as planned when a normal village girl decides to do the unexpected.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey guys. I got this idea from a movie I watched recently. I was inspired to write a story about Kankuro for some reason. I guess it's because there was never any mention of him having a love interest, so I get to play around a bit, I guess. Hope you like it ^^;**

"Enter," the familiar, serious voice of his brother called as Kankuro knocked on the door. He didn't know why he decided to knock. He usually just walked in, but when Temari told him the seriousness of the mission Gaara was to assign him, he felt like he should act differently.

As Kankuro walked into the Kazekage's office, his brother's office, he noticed himself looking around, observing the details of the office as if he's never seen it before. Maybe he was nervous? _No way._ Kankuro told himself. Missions never made him nervous. This was going to be another opportunity for him to improve his skills even more, maybe even try a new puppet he had fixed recently.

"Temari sent me here," he said to Gaara, finally looking at him. "She said you had an important mission to assign to me?"

"Yes," Gaara replied, shuffling through the papers on his desk. "There is an island within the Land of Snow. A nobleman from the Land of Snow informed me of a hidden scroll in the main bank of the island that originally belonged to his family long ago. It was stolen from him, and he is requesting the greatest shinobi that we have to obtain it back."

"I have to rob a bank?" Kankuro said, almost amused. He thought this mission was going to be challenging.

"This bank is within a powerful village with very strong shinobi. The bank is heavily guarded and protected, with many deadly traps. Any person can get fatally injured if they're not careful." Gaara retorted, seeing his brother's reaction. "You are one of the best shinobi we have, which is why I assigned this mission to you, and I have confidence that you will sneak into the village and obtain this scroll.

"Here is a detailed map of the Land of Snow, and its surrounding islands. I marked an X on the map where the village is located," Gaara said, opening up a piece of folded paper on his desk, pointing to the marked area.

The 'X' was on a large landmass, a bit more isolated than the other islands surrounding the mainland. Unlike the other islands, which bordered the bottom of the main land, this island was a bit farther up north than the others. Kankuro realized how far up north he would have to go, and imagined how long it would take for him to get to this land.

"Many important artifacts, scrolls, and technologies in the Land of Snow get sent to this bank for safekeeping due to its good reputation of assuring the safety of the many objects it holds." Gaara continued. "However, remember not to let the appearance of this bank fool you. From an outsider's perspective, it seems relatively normal and unguarded. The hidden objects are put away in a deeper part of the bank that many of the employees there are not aware of. The bank tellers in the front are normal villagers that only work with the currency of the nation. They are not aware of its secrets. It is up to you to find out where the location of the scroll is. The nobleman said this scroll can be identified by its green glow."

Kankuro nodded. Now this is a mission that sounds interesting. He was ready.

"Any more questions?" Gaara asked.

"I assume I'm not gonna be alone." Kankuro said, taking the map. This mission doesn't seem like one that would be successful done alone. If the bank had as many traps and high level shinobi as Gaara said, it seemed like he was going to need some assistance.

Gaara nodded. "I already informed your partners about this mission beforehand. I had to talk to you privately because they are not aware that the real goal is to get the scroll. They think we are to rob the bank for its currency. Your partners will be Rojikku and Kanjo. You will lead the mission."

"Why can't they know?" Kankuro asked. "Wouldn't that risk the mission failing if they lack information?"

"In this case, information will have to be withheld. The nobleman requested that the information about the scroll be kept top secret. So your partners will be used as a distraction. Any other questions?"

"No," Kankuro told Gaara.

"Very well. You shall leave for the Land of Snow tomorrow morning. Your partners will be waiting at the gates of Suna. You are dismissed."

Kankuro nodded, walking out of his office, going to get ready to pack his things. He figured he might be gone for a while. He would have to take a lot of warm clothes too. The weather up north was opposite of the weather in Suna. He heard it was cold…really cold. But he was confident, and he was ready. He was dying for something new. He was getting bored of Suna, and this was the perfect thing to keep him entertained.


	2. Big Trouble and Negotiations

**A/N: I see a lot of other writers do this, so I'll say that I don't own Naruto, as obvious as that is. I'm just doing this for fun in my spare time. On to the story…**

**Edit: I'm sorry if you've noticed I removed the chapter and put the chapter up again. I noticed that some things didn't go through, and I was fixing and organizing it.**

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…_

_I don't want to wake up._

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

_Fuck. I really don't want to wake up. Five more minutes…_

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEEP._

Mimi groaned, shoving the pillow over her head in frustration at the alarm that seemed to be getting louder the longer she ignored it. Losing her patience, she threw the pillow towards her night table, the alarm crashing to the floor. Well, at least it stopped beeping.

Throwing her legs over to the side of her bed, she threw her arms up in the air as she sat up, stretching. Kicking the alarm clock out of the way, she walked toward her window, climbing out onto the fire escape. The weather was cool and crisp, as always. She grabbed a loose cigarette that was sitting on the windowsill, lighting it with her lighter that was next to the cigarette, inhaling as the cold air soothed her lungs. The smoke faded away into the permanent winter breeze with the fog of her breath as she exhaled. Taking a deep breath, she looked around, surprised it didn't snow for the past two weeks, so her fire escape wasn't piled up with snow.

Sitting on the steps of the fire escape, she sighed as yesterday's events finally hit her full force. Thinking about it just made her want to jump back in her bed and bury herself in her blankets for eternity. Finishing her cigarette, she tossed the rest of it, stumbling back inside her apartment, stripping off her pajamas and throwing herself in her bathtub, turning on the faucet to let the shower hit her face.

She couldn't believe it…she was single, humiliated, and alone once again. More humiliated than anything. She wasn't sure if it really sunk in yet. She was so used to having Yujiro around. The year they've been together…she had put so much in their relationship, for all of it to go down the drain yesterday. A whole year wasted. The whole thing a huge lie. He didn't love her, even though he said it. He didn't care for her, even though he told her that. He even had a smirk on his face when she walked into his office and saw him with some other girl she never saw before; her complete opposite. She was tall, blonde, curvy...and there she was, skinny, and standing at four feet eleven. She couldn't decide whether to feel more hurt or more angry. Hurt at the betrayal, or angry that he completely wasted her time, angry that she really thought their relationship was…_going_ somewhere. He didn't take it seriously at all, and that made her feel stupid that she even decided to be in a relationship in the first place.

And as she got out the shower, staring at herself in the mirror, it sunk in that she had to go to work today, and look like a complete idiot in front of her boss, because he wasn't her boyfriend anymore. If the job didn't pay so well she would have just quit, but she can't quit. That would mean he won. She had to suck it up and go back to do her job. Maybe she could start looking for work somewhere else and resign when she got an offer. But to just quit? No, she couldn't do that.

She sighed, starting to brush her teeth, and combed her tangled hair afterward, giving up halfway through. She wanted to pull all her hair out in frustration with…life, herself…everything. Was it even worth living? Just waking up every day, dealing with stupid people, trying to find a purpose in why she even wakes up every day to go to work. Throwing her hair in a messy ponytail, annoyed, she threw on her clothes for work, wearing all black to not bother with trying to match anything.

"At least I still have you, Utahime," Mimi said to her betta fish, before noticing the way he peacefully drifted along the top of the bowl.

"Shit," Mimi said, sighing. Well, there goes that.

She slumped on her bed, lighting another cigarette, eventually putting her head in her hands, screaming at the top of her lungs in frustration.

* * *

><p>"There's the gates to the village," Rojikku said, looking at the gates that seemed to rival the height of the bare trees next to it.<p>

"About time. It took forever to get here," Kanjo said, looking ahead.

Kankuro agreed. Getting to the Land of Snow itself wasn't the issue, because after walking up north, you would have to go by boat the rest of the way to get to the Land of Snow. The issue was going through the terrain and extreme temperatures throughout the land to get to the village itself. Getting here was a mission all on its own. If it wasn't the almost constant blizzards, it was the wind that felt like it could slice your skin open. He much preferred the weather in the desert. Not even the nights in the desert could rival the low temperatures here. It was a miracle there were even trees around this area.

"I wonder how we're going to get inside," Rojikku said.

"Getting in through the front won't work," Kankuro said. "We're going to have to look for another way to get in."

"There are some trees taller than the village walls. Maybe we can find a way in from there," Rojikku suggested.

"Alright, we can do that. Let's use a jutsu to change our appearance. We have to be camouflage to our surroundings so the shinobi on guard won't spot anything out of the ordinary."

Rojikku and Kanjo nodded in unision, changing their suits into white clothing.

* * *

><p>"So do I qualify for the loan?" A customer asked Mimi in anticipation.<p>

Mimi shuffled through the customer's paperwork, reviewing the information that was provided. "Yeah, you qualify. You just have to sign some documents and everything should be ready for you."

"Thank you so much!" The woman said appreciatively.

Mimi gave the woman the documents to sign, sending her to one of the bank tellers in the front after asking if the woman had any more questions. She got up from her desk, walking toward the staircase to take an early break. She was getting annoyed at the looks and snickers she was getting from her coworkers. It was obvious word already got around about the breakup. She overheard one of them say "_I can't believe she didn't know this whole time, talk about denial!"_ They quickly ended their conversation when they saw her walk by. Lovely.

"Well you look like shit, Himitsu," a familiar voice said from behind her.

"Thanks," Mimi said, rolling her eyes. "You know I hate being called that."

"You know I just like messing with you."

"And other women, too," Mimi retorted sarcastically.

"I wanted to talk to you about that, actually," Yujiro said, nervously running his fingers through his chestnut hair.

"Save me the excuses, Yujiro. I really don't wanna hear it," Mimi said, beginning to walk away from him.

"You can't even hear me out?"

"There's nothing for you to explain. I just want to put this all behind us and we can both move on with our lives. Now can I take the rest of my break in peace?"

Yujiro scowled at her.

"Please?" She added. "Save me from more humiliation. Everyone was already laughing at me this morning."

He shook his head, walking away._ Thank goodness_, she thought, going up the stairs to the top floor.

* * *

><p>"Right here's a good spot," Kankuro said to his teammates. "We can jump over the wall from here, and get a good view of the bank."<p>

"How do you know that building's the bank?" Kanjo asked.

"Look in the windows, genius." Rojikku stated. "Though it seems heavily unguarded."

"Remember what Lord Kazekage said. It's going to look that way from the outside. The safe is well hidden." Kanjo added.

"Shouldn't we wait until the nighttime to do this, Kankuro?" Rojikku asked.

"It'll probably be more guarded than it is now. During the day, we have a better chance of getting in. Let's go." Kankuro said, the three of them jumping over the wall, onto a low building with snow on the top of it.

The three shinobi scouted the building, looking through each window if they saw something interesting. From the looks of it, the safe didn't seem to be anywhere in the building at all.

"Maybe we got the wrong building," Kanjo said.

"Or maybe the safe isn't _in_ the building, but under it," Kankuro suggested.

"You're right. But how will we be able to check?" Rojikku asked.

"Let's look around for people who look like shinobi. We'll follow them and see if they lead us somewhere." Kankuro ordered.

"Hey, what about that guy?" Kanjo said, spotting a muscular man in what seemed like a white fighting uniform.

"Good eye, Kanjo. Let's follow him. Hide your chakra if you haven't already." Kankuro ordered.

The man was walking toward the back of the bank. Eventually behind the building, the man walked toward a huge pile of snow that any other person would assume was just shoveled out the way. The man looked around quickly, making sure there was no one around. That was a clue. Kankuro saw the man do quick hand movements, eventually revealing that the huge pile of snow had an entrance.

"Whoa, I would have never suspected…" Kanjo whispered.

"This is it, guys. Go back to the front of the bank and cause a distraction," Kankuro ordered, changing his clothes back to his usual black attire. From the way it looked, it was pretty dark in there. His usual clothing would do him justice. "I'm going to follow this guy. Hopefully it'll lead me to the safe. Meet me outside the village wall where we entered later. I should be fine."

Rojikku and Kanjo nodded, leaving Kankuro alone. They knew he could handle this.

Kankuro stealthily snuck inside the door after the shinobi before it turned into a normal pile of snow again. The man was already at the end of a long hallway, taking a right. Kankuro quietly followed, getting himself ready for a fight if need be.

* * *

><p>"What the hell," Rojikku said to Kanjo.<p>

"Why is there a group of shinobi at the front of the bank? Do you think they already knew?" Kanjo asked.

"No, that's impossible…they can't be _that_ good…can they?" Rojikku said, looking at Kanjo in confusion. They were both still hiding.

"No, something else is going on. They're looking up at the top of the building," Kanjo said.

The two shinobi looked up, seeing a figure standing at the edge of the building.

"Who is that?" Kanjo asked.

"Looks like a woman…" Rojikku said.

Rojikku and Kanjo saw one shinobi dressed in white walk to the others standing in front of the bank already.

"What's the call for?" One of the shinobi dressed in white asked one of the other shinobi who was apparently there before him.

"Looks like a suicide jumper," The other shinobi replied. "We're going to get up to that woman on the roof."

"Great, now what are we gonna do?" Kanjo said, overhearing the conversation between the two snow shinobi. "This can get Kankuro caught in a second if they enter that bank! We don't know where that passageway leads!"

"We're gonna have to do this the hard way," Rojikku told Kanjo. "If we attract the attention to ourselves, they'll be preoccupied with us and overlook Kankuro."

"They seem distracted enough with that woman up on the roof." Kanjo said.

"But you don't want them to end up calling backup to catch Kankuro. We have to get them to call backup for us. The more shinobi after us, the less of them after Kankuro. Ready?" Rojikku said, getting his weapons ready.

"Ready."

* * *

><p>Mimi lit up another cigarette on the roof, taking a swig of her small bottle of sake. She didn't drink much, but she had a feeling she was gonna need it today, so she bought a small bottle before she went to work in the morning. She didn't even smoke often, but they were starting to be her best friend.<p>

The breeze was nice and calming up here. Walking to the edge of the roof, she wiped off the little bit of snow on it and swung her legs over, sitting down, taking in the view of the city she grew up in. It looked gorgeous from up here. It looked like a winter wonderland with the snow covering the unique architecture of the buildings. Too bad it looked so drab from down below, just like everything in it. Nothing interesting went on in this place. It was too cold for much to go on.

She took another sip of her sake, to warm her up. She forgot to bring her coat. Sighing, she stood up, standing at the edge of the roof, looking down. A part of her wanted to step back, but a part of her considered jumping. She didn't see the point of going on anymore. To get disappointment time and time again? She wanted to call it quits. Life was selfish, lonely…she had no friends, no family, the person she thought she loved betrayed her. It wouldn't make much of a difference if she just disappeared anyway.

Taking another pull from her cigarette, she exhaled. She loved the way the smoke looked as it faded into nothingness. Looking down, it seemed like people were starting to notice her on the top of the roof. There were some shinobi looking up, and more were starting to come. Well, if she was going to jump, it was now or never.

"You can't stop me, you bastards!" Mimi called down to them, even though they probably wouldn't be able to hear her. Finishing her small bottle, she dropped it, plummeting down to be shattered on the hard ground.

* * *

><p>Kankuro took a right, following the shinobi through a bunch of twists and turns that went deeper underground. Finally, the shinobi opened a heavily padlocked door and walked inside. Kankuro waited for the shinobi to go inside before he quietly snuck through the door when it was halfway closed. It slammed loudly behind him, and he found a thick pole to hide behind just in case it brought attention to him.<p>

What he saw in front of him was…amazing. He found himself in a multifloored metal labyrinth that went so deep underground he questioned if it was even real. It was amazing that such a structure could be built. But now that he was here, how on earth was he going to find this scroll? Everywhere he looked there were doors and hallways. This was going to be harder than he thought. What was he going to do…

Then a lightbulb went off in his head as he remembered what he did during the Chunnin Exams. Of course...but he had to stay hidden. There were probably a bunch of shinobi hidden everywhere. He had to stay alert.

"Hey," a snow shinobi said to the muscular shinobi Kankuro was following.

The muscular shinobi turned around, confused. "I've never seen you around here. You must be the new guy to replace Shirokuma. What's your name?"

"Uh…Aisu." The shinobi blurted out.

"My name's Hyoga. Did you need something?"

"Yes." Aisu said. "I was sent to pick up something from one of the vaults…a scroll with a green glow. Do you know where it's located? I was only ordered how to open the door, but I wasn't told its location because it was too risky to talk about it outside of here. I was told some of you would know its location."

"Oh, that scroll? Of course. That one was sent to be picked up soon and sent somewhere else. You must have been the one assigned to pick it up. I'll show you the way."

_Bingo._ Kankuro thought, as he followed the two shinobi thirteen flights down the large labyrinth of doors and passageways. He made sure to remember where he came from so he can backtrack his way out of here. Eventually the two shinobi stopped by the door that the scroll was supposed to be located.

"This is it, Aisu. You remember how to get back to the entrance?" Hyoga asked.

"Yeah, I just have one more favor…I'm new here, and I've never opened these doors before. Mind helping me?"

Hyoga looked at the snow shinobi skeptically. "Before working in this facility, we're specially trained in opening these doors."

"Oh, right…" Aisu said.

"You're not really a snow shinobi." Hyoga stated, taking out a kunai.

Kankuro manipulated his puppet, quickly taking out another one of his puppets to attack Hyoga from behind, using "Aisu" to break open the door. Once the door was broken, Kankuro rushed inside, grabbing the scroll. In an instant, kunai came at him from all directions in the room, a loud alarm going off throughout the whole labyrinth.

"Shit!"Hyoga said, tossing the puppet off of him, but not before getting cut with a poisoned kunai, causing him to fall to the ground immediately. The poison was strong, and potent, one of Kankuro's many experiments. Hyoga scrambled for his walkie talkie, saying "Floor thirteen, room 367! I need backup, now!" before starting to black out.

Kankuro used his puppets to block and dodge most of the needles, but he got hit with one. Instantly, he could tell it was poisoned, but he could barely feel its effects. It was probably a poison he was already immune to. Putting the scroll away, he ran out the room, rapidly rushing back to where he originally entered, but coming to a halt once he saw a group a five snow shinobi running his direction.

_Dammit, they're blocking the entrance out of here._ Kankuro thought. He instinctively threw poisoned smoke at them, giving him the opportunity to run in the opposite direction, deeper into the labyrinth. There had to be another way out of here.

"Hey, get back here!" Kankuro heard from behind him. There were more shinobi after him.

"He's headed down to the twentieth floor," he heard the snow shinobi say in his walkie talkie. "Be careful, he's tough, and he's got poisons!"

Within moments, there were more snow shinobi coming at him from the opposite direction as well. He was getting surrounded. He looked over the rail of the walkway. It would be a deep fall, but he didn't have a choice. He jumped over the rail falling deeper into the labyrinth. He was surprised there weren't more shinobi after him. Rojikku and Kanjo were probably causing a scene outside, slowing them down.

In an instant he tumbled to the floor. He probably fell about three more flights down, but as he got up, he cursed himself. He was surrounded by snow shinobi, as if they were waiting for him. Well, there was only one thing he could do.

He pulled out all of his puppets, ready for the challenge.

* * *

><p>Mimi looked down, seeing a whole crowd of shinobi starting to run in front of the building. There was a lot of noise…something was going on down there…they seemed to be fighting. Everyone was running out of the bank…it was a mess. What was going on? Whatever it was, she didn't care anymore. Taking a last pull from her cigarette, she tossed it, bracing herself to jump.<p>

* * *

><p>"You okay there, Rojikku?" Kanjo asked, tossing a shinobi away from him that tried to attack him from behind.<p>

"Yeah, but there's more coming. There's only so much we can handle. Let's run in the other direction; it'll lure them away from the bank."

"I don't even think that's possible, there are so many…to think there would be this many at such an isolated village."

"Kankuro needs to hurry up!"

* * *

><p>Kankuro was able to take some of the shinobi down, but he was outnumbered. One of the snow shinobi froze one of his puppets in ice with a jutsu, disabling it. He had to find a way to get out of here, fast, before they managed to do it to the rest of his puppets. He looked around quickly at the dark surroundings, and saw a hallway up ahead.<p>

"Focus on him, not the puppets!" One of the snow shinobi yelled.

Dodging an attack, he ran toward the hallway, not bothering to look behind him. He felt them gaining on him. As he neared the end of the hallway, there were two doors that opened. There was a shinobi on the other side. Kankuro manipulated a puppet to grab and toss him behind, having him crash into the other shinobi chasing him, the group of them tumbling to the floor.

Past the doors, he saw it was some type of lift. This could be his way out of here. He quickly pressed the buttons that looked like it could close the doors. It worked. As the elevator moved up, he leaned against the walls, breathing heavily. Gaara was right. Robbing this bank was _not_ a walk in the park. No wonder so many people left their important shit here. The important thing was that he got the scroll. The next thing was getting the hell out of here.

As the elevator door opened, there was yet another shinobi waiting for him on the other side. He prepared for this, instinctively kicking him in the stomach. The elevator locked itself behind him as it closed, so he couldn't get back in. Cursing, he rushed past the shinobi before he got up again.

With his luck, he realized he was in the lobby of the bank, and saw the door outside ahead of him. There were a whole bunch of shinobi outside though! There was only one way out of here—going up. He ran, bumping into a man with chestnut hair.

"Please don't kill me! Please, I beg you—"

"Stop whining!" Kankuro said, punching him in the face. "Show me how to get up to the roof, now, before I do more than break your nose!"

He shakily pointed in the direction of the staircase on the other side of the lobby. As he ran toward the staircase, he heard the man say "he went that way!"

The snow shinobi he kicked must be going after him now.

Kankuro rushed up the stairs, skipping a couple as he was ascending to the roof. He heard footsteps rush rapidly behind him. He was a flight below him. Turning around quickly, he tossed a shuriken at him.

"Ouch!" The shinobi yelled in pain, kneeling down. He got his ankle.

He ascended all the way to the top floor, pushing open a metal door, feeling the cold breeze brush past his face. He had to hurry up. That shuriken won't hold him back for long.

"_Get off the roof, we have you surrounded."_ Kankuro heard someone say with a megaphone. He just got up there. How did they know he planned to escape from the roof?

"Never!" Kankuro heard a voice say up ahead. It was a woman in a black dress on the ledge. What the fuck was she doing? He didn't know, and didn't really care, but he was pissed off that she probably ruined his huge plan of escaping here without a hassle. No wonder there were so many shinobi everywhere.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" Kankuro grumbled angrily. His escape plan was ruined because of some wackjob? He was lucky he got this far.

He felt something slice his shoulder. It was a kunai.

"Don't move!" The shinobi that was chasing him said. "Hand over what you've taken."

In an instant, he grabbed the girl standing at the ledge, putting a kunai to her throat.

"NO! Get the hell off of me, you bastard!" The girl yelled angrily.

"Shut up!" Kankuro said, covering her mouth. "Put your weapons down or she dies!" He said to the snow shinobi in front of him. "Do you want this on your conscience?"

"Just let her go," The snow shinobi said.

"I said put your fucking weapons down!"

The snow shinobi dropped all of his weapons reluctantly.

"Now go back in the building and close the door!"

* * *

><p>"Look Kanjo, there are two more people on the roof," Rojikku called over to Kanjo.<p>

Rojikku jumped on a tree to get a closer look…it was the woman, a snow shinobi, and a guy in a familiar black suit. The snow shinobi looked like he was retreating.

"It's Kankuro, he's out! Let's go!" Rojikku said to Kanjo.

The two shinobi quickly ran away, jumping over the walls of the village.

"What the hell, they're retreating!" A snow shinobi said as they ran away.

"It must have been a setup. They wouldn't just attack us for nothing," another snow shinobi said. "I'm going to go follow them, to see what they were up to."

* * *

><p>"You screwed everything up! You're a menace, I should fucking kill you!" Kankuro said, grabbing the woman by her collar. "Just look at this mess! There weren't supposed to be this many shinobi around!"<p>

Kankuro was pissed. This whole mess wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be just a couple of shinobi after Rijokku and Kanjo while he snuck away with the scroll. Now what the hell was he supposed to do? He couldn't believe this whole thing got out of hand because of some crazy villager standing on the roof.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead." The woman said.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He couldn't really kill her. There could be serious consequences for killing a local villager, and he didn't want to get into another mess. But he couldn't trust her and let her go either. He was going to have to take her with him for now, and ask questions later. It was the only way he was going to get away with this without serious consequences.

"Look, lady," he said. "I have serious business to take care of. You have nothing to lose, right? You know the area, how about you help me get out of the village without any trouble?"

Mimi looked up at the guy. What the fuck, was that paint all over his face? His accent was different too; he wasn't from around here. Dressed in all black, face paint, a bunch of shinobi around…he had to be some type of thief. And he was asking her to _help_ him?

"You're bargaining with me?" Mimi said. This guy had guts.

"If you help me, I'll kill you later, tomorrow, anytime you want," he lied. But apparently that's what this lady wanted.

"Well, there is an alley that leads into the deep woods…" Mimi said, considering his negotiation.

"Good, show me the way," Kankuro said, throwing the girl over his shoulder. She didn't weigh much. She was actually really short.

"Hey!" Mimi said. "Put me down!"

"No time for that," Kankuro said, jumping off the building, hearing a group of shinobi crash through the roof door the moment he escaped the roof of the building.


	3. Escape

**A/N: Hello again. Here's the next chapter.**

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Mimi said, a dizzying sensation clouding her head as the sand shinobi holding her jumped from building to building, tree to tree. She was having trouble distinguishing if it was the sake kicking in or the sudden, fast movements she wasn't used to. Or maybe it was both.

As if on cue, the movements stopped, and she was on her feet again, shadowed by a narrow alley between two tall, overpowering buildings. She took a good look around where she was at, and though it was completely familiar to her, she couldn't help the nervous butterflies in her gut that were starting to flutter, as if this place was completely foreign to her. It was starting to sink in that she blatantly agreed to run off with a thief recklessly and help him escape this village, in exchange of him taking her life. A few years ago, this would have sounded none other than utterly ridiculous. But here she was, at her all time low, in this gray, murky mess of a village, losing hope of ever having her life take a turn for the better. Time and time again, events have come and gone, hitting a plateau that could be accurately described as hell on earth.

"We've lost them for the time being, but we have to keep moving," Kankuro said, taking in the eerie silence that crept up after losing sight of the group of white clad shinobi that were chasing after them. "What are you doing? Now isn't time for a cigarette break!"

Mimi scowled at him as she shuffled through the pockets of her thin jacket for the box of heavenly death that accompanied her for the last month, when she started to get clues of her relationship starting to fail. Those women were right. She had been in denial. She huffed stubbornly, taking out her lighter to feel the vapors that would fill her lungs…until she saw something weird about the guy standing next to her. There was something different about his appearance than when she first saw him a couple of minutes ago, and it wasn't the face paint. Then it hit her.

"Hey, dude, you don't look so good," she said as she observed him starting to sweat…a lot. Who sweats like that in this weather?

"You don't say?" Kankuro replied sarcastically. Being that he's being tracked down right now by a bunch of shinobi, he doubted he would be looking his best right now. He looked down at the short, black haired girl, standing there with a cigarette in her hand looking like she just stepped out of a funeral, paler than a ghost, and figured she's probably seen better days herself. But in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but think that she was probably right. Ever since he escaped from the roof, he felt himself getting gradually weaker. Before he knew it, his body betrayed him, hitting the ground before he could even realize what happened.

"Dude, what the hell!" Mimi said, kneeling down over him, dropping her cigarette. "What is wrong with you?!"

"I…I don't know…" Kankuro said, having to think for a minute.

"No, no, no, no…" was all Mimi could say. She didn't want to have this guy randomly die on her. She had _no_ idea what was going on, and she did not want to find out. And if he died, she didn't even want to think about the type of trouble she'll get in afterward. If they hadn't had plans of firing her from her job, they most definitely have an excuse to now.

Backtracking his mission, Kankuro tried to remember the events that occurred trying to obtain this scroll. It was getting increasingly difficult as his head was getting fuzzy and reacting slowly. He got hit by a kunai…it had poison on it…that was it. The poison seemed to be catching up with him. The most he could do is hope that the antidote he had worked. It worked for most poisons. But he could barely move an inch…not to even lift a hand to get it in one of his pockets.

"I've been poisoned…" Kankuro struggled to say to Mimi. "Get…the…"

He started to cough, trying to get the last words out.

"Get what?" Mimi said, feeling helpless.

"…Antidote…in my pocket…it's a small bottle with blue liquid…"

Mimi felt around for his pockets, and then realized he had a whole bunch of pockets…that had a whole bunch of weapons. She carelessly tossed them across the alley, frantically searching for a small bottle.

"What are you _doing_?" Kankuro asked, coughing between words.

"Looking for the bottle!" Mimi said, finding yet another hidden pocket. "Jeez, what are you, some type of assassin?"

"Not in there, in the pocket above that one…" It was getting harder to speak.

"I checked that one already!" Mimi said, putting her hand in the pocket again to double check.

"No, not _that _one…ugh, I'm so dead…"

"No, don't say that! You're not gonna die, I'll find it…" Mimi said, more to herself as she saw him coughing more.

And as if she hit the jackpot, she finally felt small bottles in her hands as she checked another pocket that she overlooked. And as she pulled out the bottles, she realized…they were ALL different shades of blue.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me," Mimi said, looking at the bottles hopelessly. "Hey, dude, you've got like five blue bottles that all look different. Which one?"

"The…darkest blue…"

Mimi was shocked how he was actually still able to talk. The poisons that were made by the shinobi here were said to paralyze you within seconds. She didn't know when he got hit, but his body was able to fight it off for a while before it started catching up to him…and he's still talking! Either that or the poisons here just suck and the rumors were a lie. But she doubted that.

After administering the antidote, she gathered all of the weapons that were tossed across the narrow alley. A couple of minutes later, she saw the guy sit up.

"How are you feeling, dude?" Mimi asked. "I've got to ask, how did you have an antidote for the poison? You're not from around here."

"Can you stop calling me dude? My name is Kankuro." He said, ignoring her second question.

"Well, _sorry_, Kankuro," Mimi said sarcastically. "It's not like I had the time to politely ask you your name after you carried me over your shoulder like I was a bag of laundry."

_Shikamaru's right. Women are troublesome_, Kankuro thought.

"It's a cool name, though. I wish I had a cool name." Mimi added. "I don't like my name; it sounds dumb."

"Why? What's your name?" Kankuro asked curiously.

"Just call me Mimi."

"That's not your real name, is it?"

"No, it's Himitsu."

Himitsu. It didn't sound dumb to him at all, just a bit different. "It's not a bad name," he commented.

"Hn, I guess." Mimi said, the disagreement apparent in her voice. "Here, take these…sorry for throwing them around," she continued apologetically, handing him the weapons that she had tossed all over the place.

Kankuro stood up, putting the weapons back where they were located. He still felt a bit weakened, but he was strong enough to start walking.

"We should get out of here," Kankuro suggested. "I need to find my teammates before going into the deep woods."

"Ugh, fine. I need to find a coat anyway. I left mine back at the bank." Mimi said. "But if you bump into a whole army, it's your fault."

XXXXXXXXXX

Rojikku and Kanjo waited, hiding within the trees outside the village, waiting for Kankuro.

"Do you think they were able to catch up to him?" Kanjo asked Rojikku.

"He wouldn't let himself get caught so easily."

"I'll give it another half hour, but after that we should start searching for him."

Rojikku agreed.

As Rojikku and Kanjo waited, the half hour was approaching, and the thoughts of impending doom got thicker in the air…but just when Rojikku and Kanjo decided they were going to go search for their teammate, Kanjo heard the trees rustle, chunks of snow falling to the ground from the branches.

"There's someone here," Kanjo said, staying alert of his surroundings.

"Locate where the sound came from," Rojikku said, preparing himself.

The sounds were getting clearer now. There were footsteps, and it was getting louder. Rojikku's heart started racing in his chest, not moving a muscle. He managed to escape from them once, and he'll do it again, and fight to the death if need be.

Gasping, Kanjo saw a figure appear from behind the trees. Tensing up, he felt himself tighten his grip around his kunai. This was it.

The figure got clearer, the thin, cold air getting heavy as Rojikku and Kanjo prepared for the fight of their life.

"Guys, come on, I found a way out of here that won't get us caught," Kankuro said, appearing from behind the trees surrounding them.

"Kankuro," Rojikku said, sounding relieved. "We were just about to go looking for you. What took you so long? Did the snow shinobi give you a hard time? Did you get what we needed from the safe?"

"Of course I did. If we leave now, we can consider this mission a success. Follow me."

"Wait a second; shouldn't we be going the other way?" Kanjo asked.

"No, there is an exit at the end of the village, leading to a deep forest, and will lead us to a tundra that will lead us off this island. We have better luck escaping that way. The snow shinobi don't go in that forest." Kankuro explained. Mimi had told him this while they were walking to get his teammates. After showing him where the forest was located, she said she would wait for them there.

"Why?" Kanjo asked.

Before he could get his answer, the three shinobi tried to keep their balance as they felt the ground starting to shake under them.

"What the hell?" Rojikku said, looking at the ground frantically to see if there was a source.

"It's an earthquake!" Kanjo yelled.

"No…it's a jutsu." Kankuro said, getting his puppets ready.

Heavy winds circled them, bringing the snow on the ground upward into what was turning into a tornado.

"Run!" Kankuro yelled, heading toward the deep forest behind the outskirts of the village.

A huge tidal wave of snow towered over the three shinobi as they ran towards the edge of the forest. It got bigger as the first snowfall in two weeks came down at full force, causing the temperature to drop significantly, the winds increasing as if they were racing between the trees.

"We won't be able to outrun this, Kankuro!" Rojikku said, yelling over the whistling winds.

"Don't worry, I can handle this," Kanjo said, turning toward the incoming tidal wave of snow, which was getting larger by the second. Being from a shinobi family of wind manipulators, he used the strong winds that were steadily increasing, and mixed them with his own chakra, creating a gust so forceful that it dissipated the tidal wave to a nonthreatening snow hill.

XXXXXXX

"Himitsu-san," A voice said from behind Mimi. **(A/N: Did I get the Japanese honorifics right? I always confuse them!)**

Mimi turned around, and her eyes widened. "S-Shimo-sama…" It was the village elder, looking graceful as always, in a beautiful pale blue, robe like coat. She looked almost ethereal, like an ice queen, with her long, white hair dancing gracefully, despite the strong winds. It was like she was born to live in this arctic environment. _I hope I look as elegant as she does when I get her age,_ Mimi thought in the back of her mind.

Mimi comes across her so rarely; she forgets that she is such an important presence in this village. "Y-You shouldn't be outside in this weather. The blizzard looks like it will only get worse."

"Your statement shocks me, Himitsu-san."

"Why is that, Shimo-sama?"

"Well, it seems that you don't mind partaking in the mischief that was caused in our village today, so I doubt you would have much concern for my well-being if you lack concern for our own village," Shimo-sama calmly stated.

"I…I…" Mimi was speechless.

"I had high hopes for you, Himitsu-san. But you are a traitor to us now, once you decided to help a couple of thieves from our very building that helps us keep our village alive. I don't know what was going through your head, but I'm afraid to say you have been exiled not only from this village, but from the Land of Snow. You have not only put yourself at risk, but everyone else—children, the elderly, and the shinobi that fight for your safety every day. One of our highly respected shinobi has fallen, and you are helping the person that ended his life."

When Shimo-sama mentioned the fallen shinobi, she felt like her soul tore. Her parents were snow shinobi of the village, who died for the people…for her. And here she was, being a part of the conspiracy. She didn't want to even have the thought of what her parents would have said at her actions. Mimi's insides shattered, a lump growing in her throat with regret. In that instant, she remembered all the good times she had in her hometown, despite the setbacks. The small occasional festivals, filled with the decorations and delicious delicacies that were free for everyone, sitting on her fire escape, admiring the beauty of the snow shimmering throughout the whole village at night…teaching the younger kids how to make igloos. Even though she lost her parents at a young age, the villagers tried to be inviting…they never mistreated her. But she shut herself away. She had been ungrateful and selfish, due to some minor setbacks that happened in her own life…that she realized now was fixable, things she could move on and live with, even if they would never change. But her actions were irreparable, and it was too late. In her heart, she realized she didn't really want to leave the village; she didn't really want to die. And now that she had the opportunity to leave, it broke her heart that she could never come back to the chilling, cold weather that she had become so used to.

"I…I'm sorry," was all Mimi could say, looking down in shame.

But there was no reply from Shimo-sama. When she looked up, she saw that she was already gone, as if she vanished with the wind. Was that all she had to say? She felt her eyes water. Now she was truly all on her own. Of all the mistakes she made, this was the biggest one of her life. It was too late to realize that she had never been alone in her grief. And now, she had no idea where she was going to go after all this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Not bothering to see who was behind the jutsu, the three sand shinobi fled near the entrance of the forest, where Mimi was waiting for them. Needless to say, Mimi was impressed at what she just saw. Being that it was so huge, she could see what happened from a distance. The way he just evaporated that huge tidal wave of snow…it made her come to the realization that these guys were probably really high level shinobi. First Kankuro with the poison, now this awesome jutsu…apart of her wanted to see what else they had up their sleeve, but then she realized that she shouldn't be siding with these guys. At this point, though, she didn't have a choice. It's not like she was allowed back in the village anymore. She huddled in the white fur coat she managed to get in a local store some time ago while Kankuro had went to get his teammates. And the thoughts of the events that just occurred popped in her head again, and she felt her eyes start to water.

"Hey, you ready to get us out of here?" Kankuro said, walking to Mimi.

She quickly blinked back the tears that were about to fall, and took a deep breath, suppressing any temptation to break down and cry. They didn't see that Shimo-sama was here; they must have just come. She pursed her already thin lips, and looked up at him.

"Yes, let's go…" Mimi forced herself to say, before walking through the entrance of the woods. She could use a cigarette right now, but she wouldn't be able to light it in this weather anyway.

Kankuro noticed the look she had on her face before turning around to lead them. It was that same, broken look Gaara had when he was a child. Something happened…but he would rather not touch the subject. It was probably personal and he didn't know the girl well; it wasn't his place to say anything.

XXXXXXX

The sun sank deeper and deeper in the horizon the deeper they walked into the woods, and eventually nightfall had taken over, the numerous stars and constellations filling the dark blue skies as the severe snow storm ceased. The walk was quiet since the time they entered the forest, but Kanjo couldn't take the awkward silence hanging in the air any longer.

"Kankuro, who is that girl?" Kanjo whispered to him, as they were walking deeper into the woods, the day gradually coming to an end.

"That's Himitsu. I bumped into her on the roof of the bank. She agreed to show us a way out of here without being chased by shinobi."

"And how do you know to trust her?" Kanjo asked.

Kankuro looked at the short girl walking a couple of feet ahead of them, her long white fur coat trailing behind her. She walked as if she were mourning. Her attitude completely changed when he came back from getting Rojikku and Kanjo. Well, if she was trying to jump off a roof, then something had to have been bothering her.

"She doesn't have much to lose," Mimi heard Kankuro say. If only he knew that she just lost _everything._

"Hey…um Himitsu?" Kanjo asked.

"You can call me Mimi," she replied.

"Okay, Mimi," Kanjo corrected. "I just wanted to ask…why don't the snow shinobi come to these woods?"

"Because it's dangerous for people who don't know how to survive the terrain. Everyone in the village is taught how to survive in this forest and farther up north towards the arctic circle…but you guys aren't snow shinobi. This is just me making a guess, but they probably let you go because it's an almost guaranteed death. And even if we do know how to survive the terrain, that doesn't mean it's easy."

"What?!" Kanjo said, surprised. "Then why would you lead us here? I knew we couldn't trust you!"

Mimi gave him a flat look. "You know I can help you survive, right?" Mimi turned to Kanjo, finally taking a good look at him. Both of the other guys were around the same height that Kankuro was. Kanjo had really tan skin and messy lavender hair with grey eyes. He was pretty exotic looking. It's rare she sees someone that has lavender hair. She usually comes across people who have black, brown, or blonde hair. Rojikku had long, navy blue hair tied back, and glasses.

"Ignore Kanjo. He can say certain things without thinking them through, sometimes." Rojikku said. Unlike Kanjo, who probably didn't get the clue yet, he actually put two and two together, realizing that this was the same girl that attempted to jump off the roof of the bank earlier. He assumed that for her to go that far, she must have had some type of disdain for her village to begin with.

"I can see that," Mimi mumbled.

Kankuro has been to the land of snow before, but not this far up north. Was the northern part of this island actually in the Arctic Circle? If this really was the case, he hoped Mimi really did know how to survive here.

XXXXXXXXX

The past couple of days, Mimi showed them how to make shelter in the bitter cold as they traveled further up north, and other ways to survive, like heating the water that snow and ice makes so it doesn't freeze your core and kill you. She also showed them the best places to find food because it was so scarce, and that it was a necessity to survive.

They had already passed the forest, and were now in tundra. Mimi said they probably had about two more days until they hit the northern coast where the ocean was, and where there would be people to help them get off the island, and finally head south back to Suna.

"It's amazing that you know how to survive in this type of environment. It's so harsh," Rojikku said as another cool wind passed them yet again.

"It's not a big deal," Mimi said. "Every villager is trained for this since their childhood to prepare for any emergency that would make us have to flee this far up north."

"It makes me wonder how those people up north at the coast can live in this type of environment," Kanjo added.

"I'm not sure how they do it, but the elders have told us that they have some gift where they are born knowing how to manipulate ice and snow, and because of that, they have an immunity to the extreme cold. They used to live among us but wanted to keep their bloodline pure, so they left to an isolated place where people won't intermingle with their lineage," Mimi explained. "They don't mind us passing by and visiting, but won't let us live among them."

"Sounds like some type of kekkei genkai," Kankuro commented.

"Let people live among them? Not like anyone would want to anyway," Kanjo added. "This place blows."

"Literally," Rojikku said.

Mimi laughed at the last comment. "I don't mind it, I guess."

"Well, of course you don't, this is all you know! Suna's way better." Kanjo said.

"Kanjo, shut up," Kankuro said, even though he secretly agreed.

"You're saying you don't agree with me?" Kanjo replied.

"I'm not saying that," Kankuro said. "I'm just saying you sound like an idiot."

"Hey, I'm not an idiot! You think that-"

"Aaaaaand I think we can settle here for the night," Mimi interrupted, already sensing another argument. Kankuro and Kanjo have been arguing consistently ever since they left the village into the forest. Kankuro seemed to have a short fuse when it came to Kanjo's brashness. He seemed to have a short fuse for a lot of things if it was foolish enough. Rojikku seemed to be more passive and blatantly ignored their arguments and took no part in them.

"Do we have to make another igloo?" Kanjo asked.

"Well, if you don't want to freeze to death, then yes." Mimi answered.

"But look, there's a cave right over there," Kanjo said, pointing east some distance away.

"Oh, it's good that you noticed that—"

"Great, let's go!" Kanjo said, running toward the cave.

"Kanjo, no!" Mimi called after him, but he was already too far for him to hear her. Shinobi and their damn speed. "I was going to say we would have to relocate…"

"Why would we have to relocate?" Kankuro asked, looking down at her.

"Because that's a polar bear cave," Mimi said worriedly. "We have to go get him!"

Mimi heard Kankuro mutter "fucking idiot" under his breath.

"I'll go after him. You guys stay here; I'll be right back," Rojikku said,shaking his head at the absurdity of what just happened.

"…I hope they'll be alright," Mimi said, looking toward the direction of the cave.

"They'll be fine. We've dealt with worse." Kankuro said.

A couple of minutes later, Mimi and Kankuro heard roars from the direction of the cave.

"Oh no, that doesn't sound good…" Mimi said right before she saw the two shinobi running toward them…with a huge polar bear behind them.

All of them started to run away from the angry polar bear as it headed toward their direction. The three sand shinobi were able to outrun the bear easily, but Mimi wasn't able to. She felt the bear gaining on her and tripped as she attempted to run faster. She turned around to see the bear no more than a few feet away from her.

_I'm a goner_, she thought as it got closer. Her heart jumped to her throat.

But she felt something rapidly pull her away in an instant, like her body was moving without her conscious decision. In a second she was out of the range of the polar bear, standing where Kankuro, Rojikku, and Kanjo were. The polar bear gave up, and retreated back to its cave. Mimi sighed in relief. Of all the ways to die, that would not have been one way she would have wanted to go.

She turned around to see Kankuro behind her, his hands with blue strings floating out of his fingers.

"…Did you do that?" Mimi asked, surprised.

He smiled. "Yes."

"Oh. Wow, well, thank you…" Mimi said, smiling back. He just saved her life…again, technically.

"You're welcome," Kankuro said, shocked to see her smiling. She actually looked pretty when she wasn't moping around.

"I'm cold, can we build that igloo?" Kanjo asked, breaking the silence between Mimi and Kankuro as they stared at each other.

"Oh, now you want to build the igloo, you imbecile?" Kankuro snapped.

"Look, I didn't know—"

"You almost got someone killed—"

"Here we go again," Rojikku said dully.

Mimi nodded in agreement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eventually a small village started coming into view as they travelled up north, the ocean not far from the village. But the last two days had no nights. It wasn't something the sand shinobi were used to. Mimi assured them that day and night in this part of the world didn't work the same way. The nights were months long, and so were the days.

"We are here. There's someone waiting for us." Mimi said as they approached the edge of the village. "They must have seen us through the fog."

"They're able to do that?" Kankuro asked.

"Yeah, they're really gifted people," Mimi said.

When they approached the village, there was an elderly man who welcomed them. Kankuro was in awe at the fact that they were barely dressed in this weather, only wearing small strips of animal fur. The people looked pretty much the same like Mimi and the people from her village, but the most impressive thing was their eyes. Unlike Mimi's hazel eyes, theirs were huge, silver and pupil less, which shimmered like glitter the way snow would when the sunlight shined on their eyes.

The elderly man spoke in a dialect that Kankuro could barely catch on to. Mimi didn't seem to have a problem understanding and speaking to him though, and he led them to the heart of the village, where everyone welcomed them. Some of the dwellings here were crafted artistically out of ice, looking almost fantasy-like.

"How did you let us into the village?" Rojikku asked Mimi.

"I just explained to them what happened. They don't get themselves involved in the matters of the land of snow often, and tend to remain neutral in most situations," Mimi said. It was starting to dawn on her that she was going to have to think about where to go really soon. She couldn't go back to her own village—she had to leave the land, actually. She was just going to have to stay in hiding somewhere, living alone in the Arctic. As peaceful as that sounds, Mimi didn't want to do that. It was going to a painfully lonely life.

The villagers provided Mimi and the sand shinobi with extra clothing, and food. They were able to freshen up in the steam houses they had there, and even offered if they wanted to take a swim in the ocean before leaving, which all of them politely refused that offer. The way they swam in the ocean and walked around without any type of protection from the cold made Kankuro uncomfortable. He could barely believe they were still alive doing that.

The boats at the coast were bigger than Kankuro anticipated…they were ships, actually. Apparently they were imported from the main land. One of the men there waved his hand, creating a staircase of ice that led to the entrance of the ship. Kankuro thought that was awesome, and kind of intimidating. These people could create anything out of snow and ice…no wonder no one ever bothered them. Mimi explained to him that they were taking this ship to the other islands to deal with certain business matters, and they can drop them off down south on the way.

"The ship should be departing in a couple of minutes," Mimi said to the three of them.

"Thank you for helping us, Mimi." Rojikku said, walking up the staircase of ice to the boat.

"Yeah, thanks," Kanjo said. "You were a big help to us…sorry for almost getting you mauled by a polar bear," He said, before following Rojikku on the ship.

"Thank you, Mimi. I don't know if this mission would have been successful without you." Kankuro said to her.

"I'm..glad to help."

"I guess this is where we part."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Mimi said, looking up at him.

"Forgetting what?" Kankuro said in confusion.

"Our deal. Remember what you promised me?" Mimi said, remembering what happened a little more than a week ago. Mimi didn't want to do this, but to live in solitude…alone as an outcast in the Arctic…she would rather choose death, and came down with this decision while spending her time here in this small village.

"Oh, that…" Kankuro said. "Look—"

"You lied to me, didn't you?" Mimi said sternly.

"You didn't really expect me to agree to kill a villager. Do you know the type of trouble I would get in for doing that? I wasn't serious. That wasn't my mission."

"You have to do this. You made a deal!"

"I'm sorry, Mimi. I can't do that…I think you should go back to your village and talk to someone."

Mimi put her head down, tears falling down her face from the whole time she was holding them back since the day she left her home. She turned around. She couldn't let anyone see her like this. "I…can't do that."

"Why?" He said, turning her around to face him again, but she still kept her head down.

"While I was waiting for you in front of the woods, one of the village elders approached me…I'm not allowed back in the village…I was kicked out of this whole land for helping you," she sobbed. "I didn't want that to happen…I wanted to leave my village, but I would have liked to come back one day…"

That's why her attitude changed when he saw her again that day.

"I can't live as an outcast in hiding in this land. I would rather be dead…" Mimi continued. "This is all I ask of you…"

Kankuro stood silent for a minute.

"Come with us." He then said, taking her hands.

Mimi looked up at him. "R-Really?"

"Yeah, really." Kankuro said.

**A/N: Done with this chapter. It was hard for me to decide when to end it. 0.0**


	4. Suna

**A/N: Aaaaaand the next chapter's here!**

"Well, are you just gonna stand there? We don't have all day," Kankuro said, starting to walk to the ship.

"I'm coming," Mimi said, still surprised at his offer. She walked up to the ship behind him, a part of her nervous about leaving her homeland for good. She never left outside of the Land of Snow—heck, she barely left the island. But maybe being exposed to another land will be good for her. She needed the change, as scary as it seemed. It was just so far away…

Kankuro wasn't sure if the decision he just made was the wisest one, but he didn't know what else to do. He felt partially responsible for what happened, and wasn't just going to leave her after how much she's helped them. She was kind of a downer sometimes, but she wasn't so bad. She just needed to live a little.

Rojikku walked to Kankuro after he saw Mimi get on the boat, Kanjo striking a conversation with her, asking if she's coming with them.

"Kankuro, is she coming with us?" Rojikku asked him.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure about this?" He replied, raising an eyebrow, crossing his arms.

"Look, I didn't know what to do. She doesn't have anywhere to go. They kicked her out."

"Oh wow, that sucks," Rojikku said. "Regardless, remember what happened the last time. Lord Kazekage wasn't happy about you bringing foreign girls to Suna after your mission some time ago."

"That was just for a couple of nights," Kankuro explained. "And this is nothing like that."

Rojikku gave him a skeptical look.

"Dude, look at her. She's not even my type. I just felt like I had to help her since she helped us."

"Kanjo seems to have taken an interest in her, though," Rojikku joked, looking at the both of them talking near the edge of the ship.

"That guy will go after anything that walks." Kankuro commented.

Rojikku laughed at his comment. "Just so you know, I'm not taking any part in this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Rojikku said, leaning over the edge of the ship.

"Already? We haven't even been on the ship for that long," Kankuro said.

"Rojikku always gets seasick. Every time we go on water, this always happens. I'm used to it by now," Kanjo said.

Gaara always put them to go on missions together, so Kankuro expected Kanjo to know this. He understood why Gaara did it though. They did work very well together.

"Shut up." Rojikku said, annoyed.

"Aww, don't worry Rojikku, I used to get seasick a lot too. Looking at the horizon helps," Mimi said, patting his shoulder. Mimi would take ships and boats to travel between islands sometimes during her childhood. When she got old enough, she would send basic mail between the islands. It was how she learned the area so well.

"You know a lot more than what you show…" Kanjo said.

"What do you mean?" Mimi said. "Are you going to start to question me again?"

"I'm just curious," Kanjo said. "You've traveled a lot for a normal villager. You knew how to travel in tundra without getting lost, now this. Why were you on ships?"

Mimi laughed. "I know how to navigate in tundra because I was taught to read the snow. When you know how to read the snow and the winds, you'll never get lost. And I was on ships just to send basic mail and letters. The Land of Snow has many islands. It would be pretty uncommon for a villager to have never taken a boat somewhere before. I've never been anywhere outside the Land of Snow, to be honest."

"Wow, things are so different in your land…" Kanjo said.

Throughout the ride on the ship, the ship stopped on some islands where the three shinobi and Mimi would help bring stuff on board that was being traded. They would spend their time on the ship sharing stories when help wasn't needed: missions, the Chunnin exams, and ancient myths that have been passed down for generations. Eventually the days and nights went, gradually getting warmer as the ship sailed farther south. The warm weather was unfamiliar to Mimi, since she was always used to a slight chill even on the some of the hotter days back home, but the warm sun felt nice, even if she wasn't used to it. Eventually they reached the coast of the warmer lands down south, and bid farewell to the silver eyed sailors on the ship.

Mimi sighed. Seeing them and their unique eyes would probably be one of the last things she would see related to her homeland for a long time, or ever. She considered throwing away the white fur coat she bought that she had taken off once the weather started getting warmer, but reconsidered. She can keep it as a memory, since she doubted she would even use it again.

"So, how long until we get to Suna?" Mimi asked.

"Probably about a week," Kankuro said.

"Never have I ever appreciated the weather more than now." Rojikku said.

Kanjo agreed. "Yeah, no offense Mimi, but it's waaaaaay too cold up north."

Mimi shrugged. "I guess I'm used to it. The cold weather was never a huge bother to me as long as I had the right clothing. And my ancestors have been living there for thousands of years. We've adapted."

"I'm surprised none of us got frostbitten." Kankuro said. "What are the temperatures up there?"

"I wouldn't have let that happen to you guys." Mimi said. "The temperatures…well, probably around -25 degrees, and that's because it's summer." **(A/N: Real North Pole weather is a bit warmer during the summer).**

"Jeez," Kankuro said. "I don't even want to know what the temperatures are during the winter."

"It depends. The coldest I've had to deal with was about 50 degrees below zero."

"Seriously? I hope we never get sent to go back there again." Rojikku said.

"I don't think that's likely." Kankuro said, knowing the true nature of the mission.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

When nightfall came, Mimi found herself in an unfamiliar city that looked a bit sketchy. They decided to stay in a cheap motel there for the night, and the guys decided they might as well go to the bar nearby for some drinks. Mimi felt a little wine won't hurt before going to sleep later.

As she sipped her wine quietly, she overheard the guys' conversation while they were taking some shots of something she wasn't familiar with. They were talking about…guy things, and she suddenly felt that maybe she shouldn't be there.

"Hey Mimi, are you looking for a good time?" Kanjo asked her a little later.

She raised her eyebrow at him. "Um…what?"

"You heard me," he said sluggishly.

_Lightweight_, she thought. "No."

"Why not? You're such a stick in the mud. You don't even laugh that much."

"That's not true. I laugh." Mimi said. Was that true? She hoped it wasn't…

"You gotta brighten up, you know?"

She was tempted to tell him to mind his damned business, but she knew that the alcohol was getting to his head. And it's not like they knew she just went through a bad breakup and wasn't in the mood for dealing with men in any type of manner at the moment.

"Hm, I guess," was all Mimi said.

"I could help brighten up your night." Kanjo said, trying to continue a conversation that Mimi was not interested in entertaining.

She looked to where Kankuro and Rojikku were sitting to see if she can try and have a more...meaningful conversation with them, but noticed that they weren't in their seats anymore. Looking around, she saw them at the other end of the bar talking to two women.

"Ugh, they're no better," Mimi mumbled, sipping the last bit of her wine. "Hey Kanjo, I'm going to the motel. I'm feeling tired."

"But you just got here…" He said.

"Sorry," she said to Kanjo, walking out the bar. "That is so not my scene," she told herself, walking to the motel.

She turned on the shower, the water being the perfect temperature, hitting her skin soothingly and giving her goosebumps. She closed her eyes, standing and feeling the warm water of the shower in a meditative state before getting the soap and shampoo to wash up.

After she was done, she got dressed in a big t shirt and shorts and then combed through her wavy hair, letting it fall down to her hips. Even though the small clan from the Land of Snow gave her some clothing, she still needed more clothes, and ones more appropriate for this type of weather. So when they entered this town, she took the opportunity to go shopping for some clothes—nothing extravagant—just enough until she got to Suna. Unlike the other three guys, she left without much but her wallet and had to get things on the way as needed.

Walking to the small wooden desk in her motel room, she took out a pencil and a paper from the drawer that was already inside, calculating the money she had. Luckily she had a bit of money saved up and it should be enough to get her to Suna and at least find a place to live before getting another job there. She had hopes that she would be able to find something…she just wasn't sure what. She doubted she would be able to work in a bank again after what happened in the Land of Snow. Eventually, she felt tired and started nodding off.

Mimi woke up from the sunlight that gradually started to shine in the room. As she sat up, she rubbed the nape of her neck, groaning. She had fallen asleep at the desk, and now her neck was stiff. _Ugh, I must have dozed off_, she thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What the hell is up with you?" Rojikku asked Mimi as she was still rubbing the nape of her neck. It still felt a little stiff even if they left the town a couple of hours ago.

"Nothing, I'm fine. My neck just hurts. I fell asleep in an uncomfortable position."

"Sucks for you, my night was great." Kanjo said.

"I'm surprised you actually remember it," Mimi mumbled.

"He doesn't." Kankuro said. "He got kicked out after getting into a fight."

"I did?" Kanjo said. "You're lying!"

"How else do you think you got that bruise on your face, jackass?"

"Well at this point it doesn't even matter anymore. I didn't like that town much anyway. It looked shady." Mimi said before Kanjo could reply. It was getting increasingly hotter as they traveled south, and she really wasn't up for another one of Kankuro and Kanjo's stupid arguments.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

As the days went by, the weather got increasingly hotter…and hotter…and hotter…and _so much_ hotter. By the time they entered the desert, Mimi thought she couldn't take it much longer. She felt severe sunburn start to form, and regretted not getting a sunblock when she had the chance. So this is what sunburn felt like. It _hurt_.

"Hey Mimi, you're starting to look like a tomato!" Kanjo said, pointing at her face.

"I know, no need to rub it in," she said through gritted teeth. She was starting to think about whether this trip to Suna was the wisest decision. Her skin wasn't particularly made to adapt to this type of weather. She doubted she could even tan—she just turned red. "Ugh, it's so hot…this heat doesn't bother you?"

"We're used to it," Rojikku replied. "The same way you're used to the cold weather up north."

"Ugh, by the time we get to Suna I would have aged five years," Mimi said, dragging her hands over her face and instantly regretting it when the sting came afterward. "Ouch."

"It's okay, you can use Kankuro's war paint to cover any wrinkles you get." Kanjo joked.

Mimi laughed. "War paint doesn't cover wrinkles!"

"Or does it?" Rojikku inquired. "Not many people have seen Kankuro without his war paint on. Maybe he has something to hide."

"The both of you have seen me without it on," Kankuro said, annoyed. "Now shut up, idiots. That goes for you too, midget."

"Hey!" Mimi said defensively. "I'm not _that_ short…"

She heard Rojikku and Kanjo snicker at what she said. She scowled at them, groaning in frustration.

Mimi's never seen Kankuro without his war paint, though. Now she started to wonder how he looked without it. At first she thought he was wearing it since he was robbing that bank, but then she noticed he always had it on. But she was too hot to contemplate it much, and shrugged it out of her mind when the blistering heat made her thirsty.

XXXXXXXXXXX

By the time they got to Suna, it was already getting dark, and luckily for Mimi, much cooler. There were a couple of shinobi guarding the gates when they approached the entrance.

"Hey look, it's Lord Kazekage," Rojikku said. "I wonder what he's doing here," he said, even though he knew exactly what he was there for.

"He must have seen us coming," Kankuro said.

When they got to the gate, Mimi got to have a good look at who Rojikku pointed out was the Kazekage. He looked younger than Kanjo, Rojikku, and Kankuro! And, he also didn't look too happy, being that he was standing there with his arms crossed. He had a really cool tattoo, though.

She felt uncomfortable when he looked at her. He had these teal eyes that felt like it could see right through your soul, and his eye shadow made them stand out even more. She was too intimidated to say anything.

"Kankuro, come with me right now. I will speak to you two tomorrow," the Kazekage said to Kanjo and Rojikku.

"Yes, Lord Kazekage," they said, entering the village.

"What is your name, ma'am?" The red haired man asked Mimi.

"Um…Himitsu…" she said nervously.

"Welcome to Sunagakure, Himitsu. Matsuri will show you a place to stay for the night," he said. "Follow me, Kankuro."

"T-thank you, Lord Kazekage…" she said, looking down.

As the Kazekage and Kankuro walked into the village, Mimi was approached by a girl with short, brown hair and onyx eyes. She was in shinobi clothing.

"Hey, I'm Matsuri, but Gaara—I mean, Lord Kazekage already told you that." The girl said, getting a faint shade of pink when she slipped out his name. "Follow me."

"Gaara is Lord Kazekage's name?" Mimi said. "Everyone from here has really cool names. My name is Himitsu, but you can call me Mimi."

"Nice to meet you, Mimi." Matsuri said, starting to walk into the village.

As Mimi entered the village, she looked around, amazed at the beauty of it.

"This is a beautiful village," Mimi commented.

"You really think so?" Matsuri said. "A lot of people don't like the weather."

"Well, I guess that takes some getting used to…" Mimi said, looking around at the unique architecture of the structures around her.

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes, until Matsuri couldn't take the awkward silence much longer.

"Um…so, how did you meet Kankuro?" Matsuri asked. "I mean—you don't have to answer if you don't want to—"

"No, it's okay." Mimi said. "I met him when he was in my village."

"Oh," Matsuri said. "Are you guys…um…you know, dating?"

Mimi raised an eyebrow, amused. "No, why would you think that?"

"Well, this isn't the first time he's brought foreign girls into the village…" Matsuri said. "I think I said too much…"

"Ah," Mimi said, getting what she was implying. "No, it's nothing like that. It's a long story how I ended up here. Let's just say he's doing me a favor, to keep it simple."

"Oh," Matsuri said, looking down. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed."

"It's okay," Mimi said. "It's not your fault he's made a name for himself, I guess."

Now it was Mimi's turn to ask questions. If Matsuri wanted to prod, then Mimi could too.

"I noticed you called the Kazekage by his first name," Mimi said. "Are you guys close friends?"

"Uh, well, he's my sensei, so we have a close relationship in a way that a teacher and a student would…"

Mimi could see right through that. "You have feelings for him, don't you?"

Even at the night, she could see Matsuri turn as red as Mimi's sunburn.

"W-w-what?! No, no, I don't have feelings for the Kazekage—" Matsuri stuttered.

Mimi laughed.

"Am I that obvious?" Matsuri said, looking down in shame.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone." Mimi said. She didn't have anyone to tell even if she wanted to say anything anyway. "To be honest, though, he doesn't seem like the type to be interested..."

"He can seem cold on the outside, but he's really kind once you get to know him," Matsuri said.

"I see," Mimi said. This was getting interesting. "So he's shown you signs that he feels the same way?"

"No—I mean, we've—well, there are times when I think he does, but I doubt it."

Times when she thinks he does? There was more to this than Mimi thought. "Oh my God, have you guys done something together? Did you kiss?"

"I didn't say that!" Matsuri said defensively. "That would be inappropriate. He's my sensei—and the Kazekage. That would be completely inappropriate!"

"Oh, okay," Mimi said, smirking. She decided to leave it alone after that. She didn't know someone could get so red.

"We're here," Matsuri said, walking her in front of a small building.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"She leaves tomorrow, Kankuro." Gaara said to him in a disapproving tone. "I wouldn't have expected you to disobey my orders. I told you not to bring any foreigners without my permission in the village anymore. That puts the safety of our people at risk, and for superficial reasons."

"It's not like that, Gaara." Kankuro told his brother. "This is different."

"It's not like you to let a woman affect your judgment," Gaara said.

"No, we didn't do anything! The reason why I brought her here is different, and it's not for 'superficial reasons,'" Kankuro mocked.

"Explain," Gaara said, crossing his arms.

Kankuro explained the situation to Gaara, from the time he encountered her on the roof to the time they were in the North Pole.

"So what you're telling me," Gaara said angrily, raising his nonexistent brow, "Is that you let a traitor of their _own _village into ours?! How can I trust her if she isn't even loyal to her own village, Kankuro? You've done reckless things, but this is probably the most reckless thing you have done so far."

"Well, what did you want me to do, Gaara? Just leave her to be an outcast up there? She can't be that bad. She helped us escape, and she _knows_ she made a mistake! I don't know how successful that mission would have been if she didn't help us get out of there. We could have died."

"That still doesn't change the nature of the situation, Kankuro." Gaara said seriously.

"Gaara, give her a second chance. After what she's done for us, she at least deserves that. I feel like I kind of dragged her into all this and I feel partially responsible. Remember, you were given a second chance, too."

Gaara stood quiet for a minute, thinking about what his brother told him.

"Fine," he said. "But since you were the one who got her in this situation, you are to keep an eye on her to see if she has any malicious plans. And if she does and causes any harm to the village, _you_ will be held responsible."

Kankuro nodded. "Fair enough."

"And you will be assigned to D-rank missions for the entire month."

"_What?!_ Don't you think you're pushing it?"

"No." Gaara said bluntly. "You deliberately disobeyed the _Kazekage's_ orders, and I will not let you off easy because you are my brother. Be lucky the punishment wasn't worse. This was very serious. You are dismissed."

Kankuro groaned in frustration, walking out the office knowing there was no arguing with him. What the hell did he just get himself into?


	5. Spying, Bar, a Surprise, and Tension

**A/N: The next chapter is heeeere! I noticed that my last one was a bit shorter. I'm sorry about that. I'll try to add more to this one, but I'd rather not stretch a chapter out for length if I can't think of anything good to add. The good news is, I have some ideas brainstormed for this story, so hopefully I'll be able to put it all down in a good way.**

**Mina: Thank you for your kind review. I'm not one to demand reviews, but I really do appreciate them greatly! And it gives me reassurance that at least one person is enjoying the story. **

**Okay, on with the chapter ^^;**

_BANG. BANG. BANG._

"Mmmhmffff…" Mimi mumbled, shoving her head under her pillow to block out the noise.

_BANG. BANG. BANG._

"Grrrr…" Mimi groaned, sluggishly rolling over to get off the bed, but her whole body met with the floor instead. _Thump._

"Ouch…" Mimi said, rubbing her head as she got up. Looking around, she realized where she was, and then it hit her.

She wasn't home anymore. No more getting angry at alarm clocks and sleeping in. This wasn't her home.

_**BANG.**_ "Do I have to break the door down?" Mimi heard a female voice say from the other side of the door.

"No! I'm coming!" Mimi said, rushing to the door as consciousness slowly crept to her.

"I'm sorry," Mimi said, opening the door to a tall, blonde kunoichi with four ponytails as a hairdo. On another person, it would have looked quite odd, but she pulled off the hairstyle quite nicely. She was very pretty. The blonde hair and shapely figure kind of reminded her of that woman Yujiro cheated on her with, and her self-esteem plummeted. "Um, hello…" Mimi said shyly.

"Are you Himitsu?" The blonde stated bluntly.

"Yes…" Mimi said, confused.

"I'm Temari. I was sent by the Kazekage to give you a tour of the village today. Hurry up and get ready. We don't have all day."

"Uh…sure!" Mimi said. "Give me a moment; I'll be quick…uh, come in! Just sit over here…"

Temari sat down, arms crossed. For some reason, this woman and her attitude reminded her _a lot_ of someone else she knows in this village…

A five minute shower and a five minute frantic search of decent clothing later, Mimi was already outside, blinded by the sun that was beaming a bit too brightly than Mimi was normally used to outside. Besides sunblock, she needs to add sunglasses on the checklist of things she needs to buy.

Walking around the village during the day was surprisingly satisfying. Temari showed her everything: stores, markets, bathhouses, the hospital, the library, and anything else you can put in between. She was straightforward, but was concise and gave enough information to have Mimi understand how things worked around here. By the time the tour ended, she turned to Mimi, asking if she had any more questions.

"Yeah…" Mimi said, already starting to feel her skin burn again…and that was the last thing she needed.

"Well?" She said, crossing her arms. "Was I not clear enough for you?"

"No, no! You were great!" Mimi said quickly. She had a strong feeling offending this woman wouldn't be wise. "I just wanted to know where you sell…sunblock and sunglasses. I don't think I'm quite adapted to deal with the sun so directly…" Mimi said.

"Oh, of course," Temari said, looking down. "I should have known. Follow me. I can also show you where to get cloths to cover your head as well if you like. It would be useful until that sunburn you have heals."

"Thank you, Temari, that would be nice…" Mimi said. "Thank you for showing me around the village. I really appreciate it. You were such a great help."

Temari nodded, smiling slightly. That smile…it looked so familiar too.

"You know, you remind me a lot of someone I know from around here."

"Oh really? Who?" Temari asked skeptically. From the way it looked, a lot of people in this village were intimidating…Mimi guessed it would have to be something she would need to get used to if she decided to stay here.

"You might not know him, but he is a shinobi who wears face paint. You guys have the same mannerisms…and even your smiles are similar." Mimi said. "But I'm not saying you look like a guy or anything like that!" She corrected, not wanting to upset the woman.

Luckily, she laughed. "You mean Kankuro?"

"So you do know him!" Mimi said.

"Well I would hope so. He's my younger brother."

"Really?! It all makes sense now…of course you two would be related. But you don't call me midget, so you're nicer."

Temari smirked at her comment. So, he's given her a nickname? That's interesting. It was hard not to notice how short she was, though. She didn't even look like she was five feet. "I'll take that as a compliment," Temari said as she walked into a small store that sold products for minor injuries. "Here, I suggest you buy this too with the sunblock. You won't be able to use the sunblock until your skin heals."

Mimi looked at the small bottle that Temari handed to her. It was a cream with aloe and some other healing herbs in it. This would definitely help with the sunburn she had. Mimi bought the ointment, and put some on her face right after. She also bought two of the biggest sunblock lotions they sold, because she knew she was going to need a lot of it.

"It feels so nice…" Mimi said as the burning sensation on her face got replaced with a cooling sensation. "I can't thank you enough, Temari."

"It's no problem," Temari said. "Now let's get something to cover your face for the time being."

"Okay," Mimi said, nodding her head. "I can get some new clothes, too."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What did Gaara tell you?" Kankuro asked as he saw Rojikku and Kanjo walk out of the Kazekage's office.

"We just reported to him what happened during the mission. He was glad that it was a success." Rojikku said.

"No D-rank missions for you guys?" Kankuro asked.

Kanjo started laughing hysterically. "No. You got D-rank missions?!"

Kankuro wanted to punch this guy in the face so badly, but he resisted the urge. "Shut up," he said to Kanjo, annoyed.

It seemed like Gaara just wanted to talk to them to confirm his story of what happened. Gaara should know that he wouldn't lie about something like this.

"For how long?" Rojikku asked.

"For the month…" Kankuro mumbled. "I'm here to see what my mission is for today."

"For a month?! Sucks for you," Kanjo said, laughing harder. "We're leaving in three days on another mission, to the Land of Water."

"Stop showing off," Kankuro said, getting angry.

"I wouldn't consider it showing off on my part," Rojikku said. "It seems like Lord Kazekage likes to torture me. The Land of Water means boats, which for me, means throwing up half of the trip."

"Don't worry, buddy, I'll hold your hair back," Kanjo joked. "Let's go, I'm hungry."

"See you," Rojikku said, following Kanjo, saying goodbye to Kankuro.

Kankuro walked in the office, to see Gaara going through documents like what he's usually doing if he's not training with his student. Sometimes he wondered how he even made the time for that. Kankuro didn't have much patience for teaching, and he didn't stay teaching students for long, _especially_ young kids.

"You're going to water some plants for an elderly woman. Here is her address." Gaara said curtly.

"Come _on_, Gaara," Kankuro said. This just sounded ridiculous.

"Report to me when you are done. I have another task for you afterward. You are dismissed," was all Gaara replied.

Kankuro walked out irritably. He couldn't believe he was going to be dealing with this shit the whole month.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Whew, what a long day. I could use a cigarette just about now," Mimi said, sitting down on a bench with her bundles of bags.

"You smoke?" Temari asked disdainfully, joining her on the bench.

"I would say yes, but it's been so long since I had a cigarette. I don't even remember the last time I smoked."

"You shouldn't smoke, it's a disgusting habit," Temari snapped. "I've been trying to get my b—um, friend to stop doing it."

"There's no crime in having a boyfriend, Temari." Mimi told her, catching on to her slip.

Temari stood quiet for a moment, a stoic look on her face.

"Temari, really, it's okay…I'm not judging you. It's not a big deal."

"What do you know anyway?" Temari snapped, looking ahead. Mimi realized Temari was not one to want to show her vulnerabilities.

"I just went through a breakup. He was cheating on me. I've had my own experiences with relationships. There's no reason to hide it," Mimi said, figuring it would be best to open herself up. "I'm still not over it."

"I'm sorry to hear that…just keep it a secret, okay?" Temari said. "Please? I haven't told anyone, so if word goes out, I'll know it was you."

"Secret is my first name." Mimi joked nervously. Mimi would never in a million years bother to betray or cross Temari. She scared the heck out of her. "But if you don't mind me asking, why are you so focused on keeping it secret?"

"…My brothers are unnecessarily overbearing when it comes to my personal life. Of all the guys I've dated, they've scared all of them off, and I _really_ don't want them to scare away Shikamaru. Luckily Shikamaru doesn't mind us keeping it secret. He says it'll be too troublesome to deal with anyway."

"Brothers? How many do you have?" Mimi asked. She only knew of Kankuro.

"Just two—Kankuro and Gaara."

"Gaara…that name sounds familiar." Mimi said, and then it clicked, after she remembered the conversation she had with Matsuri last night. "Your brother's the Kazekage?! So that means that Kankuro…"

"Yeah…"

"Wow, my mind is blown." Mimi said. "So you and Kankuro are like royalty! I'm sorry if I've ever said anything rude—"

"Oh, don't start with that. It's okay." Temari said. "You haven't been rude at all."

"Oh, okay," Mimi said, relieved. "Well, I would be scared to date you too, if I were a guy, then. Having the Kazekage alone as your brother is enough of a threat. But to have Kankuro too—well, I feel sorry for that Shikamaru guy."

"That helps," Temari said hopelessly.

"Honestly, it's a miracle that they haven't found out yet, from the way you're making it sound."

"The only reason they haven't is because he lives three days away. The last time he was here was two weeks ago."

"Oh, that's got to suck." Mimi said.

"We try our best to spend as much time together as possible when he's here," Temari said. "And we're put to work together often…why am I even telling you this?"

That was a good question. "I don't know," Mimi said, shrugging. "But your secret is safe with me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kankuro grumpily walked back to Gaara's office, realizing that he probably would prefer avoiding old people as much as he would avoid children. The elderly woman kept nagging him about watering the plants a specific way the _whole_ time. It was only the first day and he didn't want to imagine what else Gaara had in store for him.

"Sit down," Gaara said calmly, not bothering to look away from his work.

Kankuro sat and waited until his brother was ready to dictate his next assignment, which he prayed wasn't as stupid as the one he just did.

"I want to remind you that on top of these missions I assign to you, you must keep an eye on Himitsu."

Kankuro groaned. "Fine."

"Do this wisely, Kankuro. If she is hiding something, she won't be obvious."

"Are you implying I have to spy on her?"

"Only until you get an idea of her daily routine. After that, you can investigate other aspects."

Kankuro didn't like the sound of it, but he was sure he would get an idea of her routine in about a week or two, and then after that, he won't have to do it anymore. Still, it was weird.

"I assigned Temari to show Himitsu around today, so she should be with her right now."

"Do you seriously think that midget is enough of a threat for you to assign Temari?"

"I trust Temari's judgement."

Kankuro sighed. Well, doing this was better than watering some old lady's plants. Even then, it would be a really boring month.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When Kankuro caught up with Temari and Mimi, they were at a local food market, buying some stuff.

"Are you hungry? I can cook you dinner," Mimi told Temari as she was putting produce into a basket.

"Are you sure?" Temari said.

"Of course! Take it as my way of thanking you for today," Mimi told her as she purchased the things she needed, leaving the market.

"Uh, I don't know…" Temari said, sounding unsure.

"Aw, why not? You've never gotten invited over for dinner at someone's house or something?"

"No, it's not that…I just don't want you to feel like you're obligated to do this."

"I don't feel obligated," Mimi said. "I'd rather not eat dinner alone."

"Fine." Temari said. "If you insist."

"Awesome. It's been a while since I've cooked a real dinner for someone. The last person I cooked for was Yujiro…that jerk."

"Maybe we could exchange recipes," Temari suggested. "I've been thinking of trying something new, and I wanted to do something nice for him."

"Sure," Mimi said.

And blah blah blah blah blah. Is this the kind of stuff girls talked about? Apart of him was thinking maybe the D-rank missions weren't so bad. This was more boring than…a lot of things. He didn't know Temari had it in her to be like this. He wasn't sure who Yujiro was, but he assumed he was probably an ex. And Temari seemed to want to do something nice for someone. Was she dating someone else?

He reluctantly followed them to Mimi's place to get more information. He should strangle Gaara for subjecting him to this crap.

He found a place to be discreet, but close enough to hear the two girls.

"We should plan a day where we can teach each other the new recipes," Mimi suggested as she was starting to cook the dinner.

"That would be nice. When can we do that? I want to do it soon so I can have everything ready when the time comes."

"Next week would be good for me. I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week. I have a whole bunch of stuff to do, and I have so many errands to run tomorrow."

"What are you going to be up to tomorrow?" Temari inquired.

"Well, I want to speak to the landlord about starting to rent this apartment because I've taken a liking to it, and then I need to go to the library to fix up a resume and other documents so I can look for work. Since you've showed me around, I've noted a few places in mind that I can apply for…and I really need to organize. I already see the beginnings of a mess starting to form in the room."

Temari was smart—she was trying to make conversation with her to see if she could pick up on anything suspicious. But the rest of the conversation was pretty meaningless drabble that Kankuro did not find interesting at all. But at least he heard something that Gaara would be particularly interested in, which was her resume. It might give clues if she has plans of doing anything, especially depending on where she would be applying. He could follow her to the library tomorrow and steal a copy when she wasn't looking.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This is…heavily uninteresting," Gaara said, as his teal eyes scanned over the documents that Kankuro managed to steal from Mimi while she was in the library. Being that she was applying to quite a few places, she had a few copies. "Was there anything that she did during the day that looked out of the ordinary?"

"No," Kankuro said. "She did exactly what she said she was going to do when I was listening in on her and Temari's conversation yesterday."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Kankuro said. "It's so boring it's torture. The most interesting thing I heard was that Temari wants to do something nice for some guy."

"Is that so?" Gaara said, looking up from the boring papers that he was reading. "What guy?"

"I don't know. She didn't say a name."

"I see."

"She's going to see Mimi again next week. I'll probably figure it out by then."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two weeks later, after doing a list of errands that a villager wanted him to do (another stupid mission), he went to go check up on Mimi. At this point, he found it completely pointless, being that throughout the weeks she hasn't done_ anything_ remotely interesting…at all. If this was the way she was leading her life in the Land of Snow, he finally understood why she wanted to jump off a roof. He would have gotten bored to death with that life too. She eventually did find work as an accountant in some spa company, and she did her job just like anyone would do. She ended up making a friend named Rubi some girl with red hair who was one of the estheticians there. They would hang out like typical girls and there was nothing suspicious going on. He tried to listen in on Temari and Mimi's conversations since they would see each other every week, but every time he was about to hear the name of the guy she apparently was dating, there would be a loud noise or an interruption, and he would miss it. He figured that spying was getting useless, and he would have to start investigating differently. So far, Mimi didn't seem like much of a threat at all to the sand village, but he had to listen to Gaara's orders. He couldn't wait until this was over so he can go back on missions again.

Sighing in boredom and frustration, he spotted Mimi coming out of work, with one of those cloths over her head that his sensei used to wear, except it covered everything but her eyes. She was harder to find when she wore these. He noticed she didn't wear them all the time, just on days where it was really sunny. Luckily he could spot her by her height since her face was covered.

"Hey Kankuro, I haven't seen you for a while," Mimi said, approaching him when he decided to make himself visible. "Were you away on another mission?"

"Yeah," he said. Well, it wasn't a complete lie. "I see the sun still bothers you. You look like a miniature ghost in that thing."

Mimi laughed. "I'd rather look like a ghost than get sunburn. But the sun isn't as bright anymore," she said, taking the cloth off. "I never got to thank you for giving me the opportunity to stay here. I'm much happier, and your sister's such a sweetheart. I wish I could see her more often, but I know she must be very busy."

"My sister a sweetheart? Are you sure you're talking about the right person?"

"Don't be mean. She may be a bit…rough on the edges, but she really cares about you."

"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled, looking at the midget. Her hair was loose, falling down to her waist. When she took off her cloth, he noticed she looked…prettier. She usually wore her hair up, but she looked nicer with it down. He didn't know it was so long. There was something different about her that he couldn't put his finger on. He looked lower, seeing that she was wearing a simple toga styled white dress. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it did fit her small frame nicely.

"Hey, Mimi! There you are!"

"Hey, Rubi," Mimi said, waving. "I was waiting for you."

"We're still going to the bar, right? Happy hour's starting soon." Rubi said, then noticing the guy standing near Mimi. "Who's this?"

"Oh, this is Kankuro. He just came back from a mission." Mimi said. "Kankuro, this is my friend, Rubi."

"Hello," Rubi said, then turning to Mimi. "Me and my friend are gonna have a contest on who can down the most shots."

"Don't you think that's a bit dangerous?" Mimi asked Rubi.

"Ha, you haven't seen me and him do it yet! He's beaten me twice, and I've only beaten him once. I'm trying to have a draw."

"The thought of that just scares me," Mimi said. "I think I'm going to have to walk you home tonight. Hey Kankuro, want to come with us? I don't think you'd want to miss out on this."

But he didn't answer.

"Kankuro!" Mimi said, tapping him lightly.

"Huh?" He asked.

"What's wrong with you? I hope you didn't get poisoned again," Mimi said. "I was asking if you wanted to come with us to the bar. Were you even paying attention?"

Rubi snickered. "Doesn't seem like it."

"What's so funny?" Mimi asked.

"Ooooh, nothing…" Rubi said, smirking at Kankuro. "So, wanna come with us?"

"Sure," he said, looking away from Rubi. It would give him a better opportunity to "investigate." A part of him thought that Gaara was just making him do this as part of his punishment. It was starting to become pointless. Though this Rubi girl looks like the type to get caught up in drama. He didn't understand how Mimi could be friends with her.

"I wonder where your friend is, Rubi," Mimi said. "He should be here by now, and I want to meet him if he's as cool as you say he is."

"Trust me, he's fun."

"What's his name again? R—ahh!" Mimi said, jumping as she saw a kunai shoot right past her towards Kankuro. Kankuro caught it easily.

"Oh, God, not this guy," Kankuro said, tossing the kunai on the floor in frustration.

"Good catch, Kankuro," A guy with messy white hair said, walking toward him. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you in this part of town."

Mimi could swear she saw a vein pop in Kankuro's head.

"You guys know each other?" Rubi asked the white haired guy.

"Unfortunately," Kankuro said. Great, now he had to deal with _this_ moron.

"Why so upset, Kankuro? Scared of your rival?"

"You're not my rival if I keep beating you," Kankuro sneered. "Don't tell me Ryu, you have another stupid plan up your sleeve."

"Yes, I do have another plan, but it's not as stupid as you think!" Ryu said. "I have found a way to imitate you without the use of chakra strings! Wanna see?"

"I won't hold my breath," Kankuro mumbled. "I think we should start going to the bar," he said to Mimi.

"Wait one second!" Ryu said. "I challenge you to—"

"No." Kankuro said, cutting him off.

XXXXXXXXXXX

In the bar, Rubi and Ryu were doing exactly what she said they were going to do. So far, Ryu was winning.

"They're crazy," Mimi said to Kankuro as Rubi took another shot.

"Hn," Kankuro said. "At least he's not trying to start a fight with me."

Mimi bought a drink that the bartender suggested, taking a sip.

"Why do you dislike him so much?"

"Ever since I've been in the academy that guy's been trying to compete with me."

"I don't see any harm in that." Mimi said, taking a gulp of her drink.

"I wouldn't either if he wasn't such a jackass." Kankuro stated bluntly.

"Harsh. The sake's already going to your head?"

"I wish I could say that, but I'm serious. If I would have agreed to fight with him, he probably would have done something stupid like tie strings to a random person or something."

Mimi blurted out laughing. "_What? _I don't believe that!"

"You see, even to a normal villager it sounds stupid. He's been clowning around ever since we were kids, and I don't know why he has such a fixation on trying to beat me, and why he expects me to take him seriously when he does stuff like that. It's like he's mocking me. The first time he tried to fight me he got himself caught in his own trap."

"Well, there has to be something good about him if he's a shinobi. And he obviously looks up to you."

"Whatever," Kankuro said. "It's a miracle he graduated from the academy. He wanted to work with puppets, but his chakra control was terrible."

"That explains a lot." Mimi said, finishing her drink and requesting another one. "There's probably some resentment there since you're doing what he wanted to do."

"I'll see him as a rival when he decides to be serious," Kankuro said. "You're going to order another one of those? Those are pretty strong."

"Yeah, I feel fine." Mimi said.

"It's going to sneak up on you."

"But they taste so good," Mimi said, taking another sip when the bartender gave her another one.

"Fine," Kankuro said. He wasn't going to argue with her.

After an awkward silence, Kankuro decided would be a good time to ask more about Mimi, who was sitting there, almost done with her second mixed drink. It's what he was supposed to be doing anyway.

"Mimi."

"Yeah?"

"Why did you want to leave?"

And that's when she told him everything. It was a long story about how she doesn't remember who her parents are and felt jealous of other people who still had their parents, and how it turned her bitter and uninterested in making friends with anybody who didn't understand her. She said in retrospect she probably sounded like an angsty teenager, but she was young and stupid, which caused her to make stupid decisions which got her hurt and alone in the end.

"I thought I finallfound happiness in my ex, but he turn't outto be a cheatin' douche and it sucks because a part o' me still 'asfeelings for da idiot." She said. "…I dunno know what I was thinkinwhen I was on da roof o'da building. I guess I just wanted to call it quits because I felt like my life wasn't goinnowhere. It was really stupid of me to do, and it caused me to lose everything…but den I met you and you gave me dis super epic opportun-oppor…tunity and you're awesome for that. I like you a lot. I met nice people here and yoursistersawesome n menhertalk 'bout deep stuff too. I 'ppreciate what you done."

"What have you talked about with Temari?" He asked, curious.

"Nunya business." She stated flatly. "You gotta let her breatheleaveheralone."

Kankuro didn't expect that kind of reply from Mimi. She didn't seem like the type to be so upfront.

"I wananother drink." Mimi said. "Where's da bartender?"

"I think you've had enough to drink." Kankuro said.

"No I'mgood." Mimi denied. "I'm notevendrunkyet."

"Yeah, sure." He replied.

"Mimi!" Rubi said, walking to her. "Me and Ryu are hungry; we're gonna go get something to eat. I'll see you later."

"What 'bout that contest you guysweretalkin' bout?"

"We found out we were both cheating…anyways, I'll talk to you tomorrow or something."

Mimi laughed. "Youain'tgoin' out for somethin' to eat at dis time. Stop lyin."

Rubi laughed, and told her something in her ear that Kankuro couldn't hear. Mimi smiled. "Fine I'll talk to you t'morrow."

Kankuro hadn't noticed how much time passed by. Mimi was talking to him for a while, though. It was already dark outside.

"I could useacig'ret right now," Mimi said, fumbling for her wallet, dropping it on the floor when she found it.

"Damnit," Mimi said, leaning down to pick it up, but Kankuro already picked it up for her.

"Don't worry, I'll pay."

"No—"

"Let's go." He said.

"Okay," Mimi said. "Thankyou. Dis is whyyou're awesome."

As they walked outside, Mimi stumbled slightly, then turning to Kankuro.

"You knowwhere I couldgeta cig'ret?" She asked. "I wanone before I gohome."

"No," he said.

"Oh well, I doneed it anyway. Bye, it wasnice talkin' to you dude."

"I'm going to take you home. You could barely walk," he said. Maybe he shouldn't have let her have that second drink.

"Okayif youwant to, but I as'sureyouI'm fine."

Kankuro accompanied her as she stumbled to her house, and decided to pick her up halfway there, even though there was some resistance on her part. It was getting frustrating to be with someone walking like that after a couple of minutes. He put her down after they got to her door.

"Thanks," she said. "You'rereally niceeven thoughyoucall me midget."

"You are a midget." He joked.

"Y'know youcan stop by anytimeyou want. Idon't mind your company," she said.

He knew she didn't mean it that way, but he felt himself get red as other thoughts came to his mind.

"Uh…thanks," he said awkwardly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mimi was awakened by someone knocking on her door. She sat up and looked around, last night being fuzzy. _I really shouldn't have had that second drink_, Mimi thought, rubbing her head. She didn't remember much after that.

She looked around, apparently having thrown herself on the couch and fell asleep when she got home. She remembered being with Kankuro. Damn, there were things she _really_ shouldn't have said last night. She doesn't remember what she said specifically, but she had a feeling she probably said a bit too much.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

Who could that be? It was her day off, and she wasn't expecting anyone. It was probably Rubi.

Opening the door, she saw someone that she would have least expected to pop up unexpectedly.

"…Temari?" Mimi asked, confused. They hadn't planned to meet today. Though she didn't mind, she could see that Temari looked troubled, so she had to be here for something important. Temari wasn't the type to come unannounced. Temari always let her know when she was coming beforehand. "Is everything okay?"

"…Can I come in?" she asked.

"Of course! Come in!" Mimi said. "I had wanted to spend more time with you."

"Thanks," she said, walking in and sitting on the couch. "Did you just wake up now? It's one o'clock. I hope you don't pick up on Shikamaru's habits."

"Oh, no," Mimi replied laughing. "I just…drank a bit too much at the bar last night."

"Oh," Temari said, smirking.

"Are you hungry?"

"No, far from it. I can't eat…"

"Are you still feeling sick from the food we made last week? I'm sorry if it didn't settle well." Mimi said. Last week, Temari had ended up throwing up everything she ate, but insisted that it was a stomach bug she had for the past couple of days.

"No, I'm just…at a loss right now."

"What's going on?" Mimi said, sitting down on the couch, concerned.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, it's just…I don't know what to do…I have no one else to tell…" she said, sobbing.

Okay. Something was _definitely_ wrong. Temari never cries. Ever.

"You're not bothering me. What's wrong Temari? I want to help you!"

Temari stood quiet for a minute, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"It wasn't the food that was making me sick. I-I thought it was a stomach bug, but I've been throwing up all the time now…and I missed my period…so I…I took a pregnancy test…it came out positive…" Temari said, sobbing. "I'm pregnant…I can't believe this…I'm so stupid."

Holy shit. Well, that was definitely the shocker of Mimi's morning.

"You're not stupid, Temari." Was all Mimi could say. This news came as a shock to her. Even she didn't have anything to say to that. "This can happen to anyone. Do you want the baby? Do you feel ready?"

"Yes, I do want it," she said. "That's not what I'm concerned about…what will Shikamaru think? I'm not sure if he's going to want the baby. I don't even know when he's coming back. I know it's sometime soon…but I'm so nervous…how am I going to tell him? How am I going to tell this to my brothers? They don't even know I was seeing someone! They'll kill him…this is terrible…"

Mimi took a minute, trying to find the right words.

"The most important thing right now is for you to just stay calm. You cannot afford to be stressed out right now. You don't want it to affect the baby." Mimi said, trying to formulate her thoughts. "And secondly, once Shikamaru comes, you have to tell him. Then you guys can work something out together…and you'll at least know what he thinks about it."

"And what about my brothers?"

Mimi sighed. "It's completely your decision if you want to tell them or not, but I can tell you this: you can't hide it forever, Temari. Lord Kazekage's especially going to notice you bailing out on all your missions. You can't go on missions pregnant."

"Ugh, I know…" Temari said, holding her head in her hands.

"You know, if you don't want to talk to anyone right now, you can pack some clothes and stay at my place for a while, as long as you feel comfortable," Mimi said putting her hand on her shoulder. "I understand how much it can suck being all alone with all these conflicted emotions. I don't want you to feel like you're alone on this."

"…Thank you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Up North at the Land of Snow…_

In a meeting room in a tower where the village elders resided, sat a group with investigators, shinobi, and the elders themselves. The air of the room was heavy and serious, finally feeling like they were going somewhere with the investigation.

"We need to find leads on this investigation as soon as possible," Shimo-sama stated. "We have one of the best banks in the land. If news goes out of the island that something was stolen and that one of the employees missing was a traitor, it would not end up well for our village."

"We are currently increasing and improving the security of our bank, Shimo-sama. But we are still investigating the identities of the three shinobi who robbed the bank. Currently our most experienced investigators are interviewing the employees of the bank to see if we get any leads," Shiru, a high level Snow shinobi said to the village elder. "They recently obtained information on the sand shinobi, and should be able to figure out the identities if the interviews of the employees are successful. As of now, the information we have so far is that these shinobi originated from Sunagakure."

"Good, so we know where to go so we can get the scroll back," Shimo-sama stated.

"And what of the traitor?" One of the other snow shinobi asked.

"She is not allowed here anymore," Shimo-sama retorted.

"Shimo-sama," one of the investigators said, "I understand your concern for the village, but we must also find the traitor and question her. Even though she tried to attempt suicide, she could have still been forced to cooperate with these rogue shinobi against her will. If this is the case, it would be our responsibility to ensure her safety and her urgent return as well. From the looks of it, her mental state was very vulnerable, and open to suggestion. If this is the case, we must retrieve her immediately if she is still alive."

"Very well then," Shimo-sama stated. "We need to find a way to get to Sunagakure. I have heard the travel there is not easy. The terrain of the desert makes it heavily protected and hard to find."

"I have a solution to this issue, Shimo-sama." Shiru stated. "Our investigators found a shinobi currently residing in Konohagakure, who visits Sunagakure very often. His name is Shikamaru Nara, from the Nara clan. We can get our shinobi to disguise as villagers who are travelers, and need a guide. However, he has an IQ of 200 or higher, and will be able to figure out fairly quickly what our plans are if we are not careful. The shinobi of Sunagakure appear to be very powerful as well. It took many of us to try and fight one, and they all still escaped almost unscathed. It's quite impressive they were able to rob this bank. The Kazekage is said to be extremely powerful as well."

"Well then I will have to go personally to the Arctic Circle and talk to the residents of the village there. We will need their power, and their kekkei genkai to be able to fight if it is needed."

"And if they do not cooperate?"

"I will inform the other islands and the main land to cut off their imports. Their population is growing and there is not enough food from the wild there to sustain them without them posing a risk to the environment. They will not have a choice." Shimo-sama stated. "I am very impressed with your work, Shiru. You are all dismissed. Report back to me when the identities of the three shinobi are found. I will send a telegram to Konohagakure requesting Shikamaru Nara."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Do you remember the face at all?" One of the investigators asked Yujiro, whose nose was covered in a large bandage, still healing from the assault.

"Give me a minute…I _was_ brutally attacked, after all." Yujiro said.

"Right…" the other investigator said.

"It was all so fast. One minute I was begging for my life, and the next minute I was punched. One thing I can say was that he was wearing all black from head to toe, and his face was painted."

"Is this the man you're talking about?" The investigator asked, showing a picture of the shinobi he described after looking through a deck of profiles of the many shinobi in Suna.

Yujiro looked down, eyes widened. "Yes! Yes! That's him! That's definitely the same guy."

"Kankuro…" the other investigator said. "Did you see the other two shinobi?"

"No, only him. He was the only one I saw in the bank."

"Okay," The investigator replied. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Let's go, we have to report this to Shimo-sama."

**A/N: And that ends the chapter. There was a LOT of dialogue in this chapter; a bit too much for my liking. I'll try to even out the amount of dialogue and narration in the next chapter.**


	6. Secrets Revealed

**A/N:** **Next chapter =]**

_A week later in Konoha…_

Choji eyed Shikamaru, trying to figure out what his next move was going to be. Shikamaru looked barely interested, getting ready to plant his next move.

"Can you at least look like I'm a challenge?" Choji asked him, shoving a handful of chips in his mouth.

"Sorry," Shikamaru said, doing his final move. "I win."

Choji tossed the game pieces in frustration. "I give up! I can't _ever_ win! I really thought I had you this time!"

"No, I was just being nice and let you take the lead for a while," Shikamaru joked.

Choji gave him a not-very-soft playful punch on his arm, causing Shikamaru to rub it. "Ouch, you really don't know your own strength."

"Sorry buddy, I always forget." Choji said guiltily. "Want some chips?"

"No thanks. Let's play another round," he said, lighting a cigarette.

Choji looked at him, concerned. "You've barely been eating. All you've been doing is smoking and playing Go. It's not healthy."

Shikamaru sighed. He knew his friend was right. "I know."

"You miss her, don't you?" Choji said, knowing what was on his friend's mind.

Shikamaru looked down, lost in his own thoughts.

"I hate that she's so far away. I know I have duties, but anything can happen. Letters just aren't enough sometimes." Shikamaru said. "That's why the next time I go to Suna, I'm going to ask her to marry me. I'm tired of this long distance crap. It's troublesome."

Choji's eyes widened. "Really?! I didn't think you had it in you, Shika!"

Shikamaru took something out of his pocket, showing his friend an engagement ring.

"Oh my God! She's going to love it, Shikamaru! I'm so excited!" A very pregnant Ino said, popping up.

Shikamaru jumped. He immediately turned off his cigarette. "A warning would be nice, woman. I was smoking!"

"You should stop that anyway. It's gross," Ino said, putting one of her hands over her belly.

"Yeah, yeah. I hear enough of that from Temari." Shikamaru grumbled.

"Shouldn't you be home, Ino?" Choji asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I was out getting some groceries, and Sakura told me to find Shikamaru because the Hokage wants to talk to him."

"You and Sakura shouldn't be walking around vulnerable. Why didn't you send Sai to tell him?" Choji said.

"We're pregnant, not handicapped." Ino said. "Is that why I barely see Karui? You should give her some freedom. She'll be fine."

"I just want to make sure she's safe. Our baby is due next month." Choji said. "But you really should be staying home. That baby looks like it might come out any minute. Right Shikamaru?"

"I'm more shocked at the fact that everyone is pregnant around the same time. A part of me thinks all you troublesome women planned this."

"It would have been cool if we did, but it's really just a coincidence. And if we did plan it, Temari would have been in on it too!"

"It would be cool if it was planned though," Choji said thoughtfully. "Then we would be able to do ino-shika-cho!"

"Speaking of that," Ino said to Shikamaru. "You should be going to the Hokage. Sakura mentioned something about you going to Suna."

Internally, Shikamaru wanted to do backflips. He couldn't wait to leave. "Alright, alright, woman. Don't nag me," he said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You were requested by villagers in the Land of Snow to take them to Sunagakure," the Hokage told Shikamaru. "I've already sent a telegram to the Kazekage to inform him of future visitors. You depart tomorrow."

"I can leave today," Shikamaru suggested.

The copy nin chuckled. "I wouldn't expect you to be so eager to do work, Shikamaru. It's not like you at all." He teased, knowing full well the reason he wanted to leave so quickly. "I wouldn't have a problem with you departing today, but the villagers should be arriving in the area by tomorrow. Be ready tomorrow morning, so don't forget to put your alarm on. Don't be late. You're dismissed."

_He should be the last one telling people not to be late,_ Shikamaru thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_At the Land of Snow…_

"How do you know they're not all dead, Shimo-sama?" Shiru asked her, while they were walking through the peaceful, white roads of the village.

"We've already sent a search in the deep woods to see if they found bodies, and they still haven't found any. Almost every inch of that forest was checked. They had to have escaped with Himitsu's help." Shimo-sama said, looking at the horizon in contemplation. "When I talked to the people of the village in the north of the island, they mentioned a group of four people that they sent on ships down south. One of them was from here, because she understood their dialect. That girl had to have been Himitsu, which means that they got away with the scroll, and a hostage. Luckily we were able to identify one of the shinobi. That would be enough to track the location of the scroll."

"Did you manage to get them to help us?" Shiru said.

"They don't have a choice. They will do what it takes to protect their environment and the animals that live there. It is sacred to them. They were reluctant, but I managed to convince them."

"I don't think it would be wise to take such aggressive measures just yet, Shimo-sama."

"I don't plan to be so reckless, Shiru," Shimo-sama said. "The mission for now is to take a look around the village to find its weak points, and also to see if the three wanted shinobi and the hostage are there. They would be able to tell us what happened to the scroll. If that scroll joins the others, nothing other than an apocalyptic catastrophe would occur. This can't happen. If we cannot take the scroll back in secret, we will have no choice but to inform the Kazekage what is in the nature of that scroll."

"We can't do that, Shimo-sama! There must be another way!" Shiru said. "This is a time where the Queen would have been most useful."

"Don't say such blasphemy, Shiru. The mistakes of our village's past cannot be repeated. We valued power over wisdom, and it almost led to our demise. Even the people of the village up north would agree that we are better off running our village with experienced elders."

"I'm sorry, Shimo-sama, you are right." Shiru said. "But what if the Kazekage refuses to negotiate?"

Shimo-sama sighed. "I have faith that the Kazekage will heed our words if it comes to that. He is highly respected and has a great reputation despite his young age. If he does refuse, however, we will have no choice but to start a war. That is the worst case scenario, and a scenario I pray will not happen. A war with Sunagakure would be a guarantee of the deaths of many of our own shinobi. Throughout the years, their reputation of powerful shinobi has grown."

"You're right, Shimo-sama. I can still barely believe that the sand shinobi who broke into our village were able to fight all of us off with such ease, especially the one with the face paint. It was reported that he managed to obtain the scroll all by himself, fighting off a whole bunch of us. I must say it was impressive."

Shimo-sama sighed. "With the help of Himitsu-san…the investigators were right. I may have been too hard on her. We may have been more successful if I hadn't kicked her out of our village. It was a huge mistake on my part."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Shimo-sama. According to the employees in the bank, Himitsu-san had always been quite a bitter and resentful person. She was bound to do something of this sort sooner or later."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A couple of days later…_

"You've improved so much, Matsuri," Gaara said as they finished their training together.

Matsuri turned pink, looking down. "T-thank you, Lord Kazekage. I wouldn't have been able to improve without your help."

Gaara walked closer to her. "Are you implying that I'm your reason to work harder?"

Matsuri looked up into those beautiful teal eyes that Matsuri had grown used to. She had stood silent for a minute, not really sure how to answer that question, or why he would even ask it.

"…Yes, Lord Kazekage," she finally said, going with a simple answer. "You are my motivation to work harder. After you had gotten kidnapped, I vowed that I would become strong enough to protect you so it would never happen again."

"…Thank you, Matsuri," Gaara said to her. "I feel the same way about you."

"Huh?" Matsuri said in confusion.

"I wasn't the only one who had gotten kidnapped."

"Oh—right." Matsuri said, looking down.

There was a long silence. Matsuri was used to this because of Gaara's quiet nature, but for some reason, the silence felt different this time, and for the first time, it was Gaara to break the silence.

"I told you that you can address me by my first name, Matsuri," he said, taking her hands.

Matsuri looked up at him, noticing that the distance between them was getting smaller. She hadn't been this close to him in a long time, and it was making her uncomfortable. He wasn't acting like his usual self.

"I hope you know you are very precious to me," he said to her.

Matsuri felt her heart hammering in her chest as she looked into his eyes. She was speechless. Did this mean what she thought it meant? Her heart was telling her to just kiss him, but she held back. A part of her was scared that she was probably misinterpreting this. Maybe this was just all platonic, though she hoped it wasn't.

And as all these conflicting thoughts between reason and emotion were wrestling in her head, she saw him lean closer to her. Was he going to kiss her? It had happened before, but the both of them buried it and agreed that it was best for it to be forgotten. They knew it was taboo. But that was so long ago. What would be the difference now? She didn't want the same thing to happen again. It would be too much for her heart to handle. But she wanted to so badly again…if only—

"Yo! Gaara! Shikamaru's waiting for you!" Matsuri heard a familiar voice say, interrupting her thoughts…and their second kiss. She internally sighed in disappointment.

Gaara stepped back immediately, seeing that it was Kankuro who called to him.

Gaara nodded. "I was expecting him. I will be there shortly."

Gaara turned to Matsuri. "I will see you soon."

Matsuri nodded. "Um…I have some errands to run that I planned to finish after training," she said, running off abnormally quick.

Kankuro snickered after she ran off, turning to Gaara. Did he just see what he thought he saw? He couldn't believe this. Gaara wasn't as cold as he thought. It all made sense, now. He remembered a long time ago, when Gaara sparked up a conversation about love. He thought it was weird, but he didn't think much of it back then, because Gaara was always doing things Kankuro didn't understand. But now it makes sense. Around that time, he was training with Matsuri very often. No wonder he always found time to train with her on top of his other duties.

"Gaara, you know you can speak to me about anything," Kankuro said to Gaara, smirking.

"There is nothing to talk about." Gaara said sharply.

"Doesn't look that way." Kankuro joked.

"There was nothing going on. She is my student and that is all." He said, walking away quickly, leaving Kankuro behind before he could reply.

Kankuro shrugged. It wasn't that much of a big deal to him, but Gaara was like that. He wondered where Temari was. He had a feeling she was avoiding him for some reason, but he didn't know what he did wrong.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shikamaru was tense as he waited for the Kazekage. Of all the missions he had to do, this had to be the hardest and most deadly. He already bid his friends his last dying words if he were to not come back. He was throwing himself in a lion's den, but it had to be done if he wanted to be able to be with the most important woman of his life. He would do anything for her, even if it was risking getting in a death battle with the Kazekage—in a desert. He would have never expected to get himself into such a troublesome situation for a girl, but like father, like son.

He took a deep breath as he saw Gaara getting clearer as he got closer in the distance. Ironically, he would rather speak to Gaara about this first than Kankuro. Gaara was a bit more lenient when he came to Temari, so if he got through to him first, it would be easier to get through to Kankuro, who was extremely stubborn. Still, Gaara was more deadly, so it's a lose-lose situation.

"Hello, Shikamaru. I apologize for making you wait, come with me." Gaara said as he gestured to follow him.

They ended up in his office, and he sat down behind his desk.

"I was sent on this mission by the Hokage, to escort some tourists from the Land of Snow." Shikamaru said.

"Yes, I received his telegram."

"I wanted to report to you that I think we should keep an eye on these…tourists. While escorting them, they didn't act like normal tourists. I don't know what they're here for, but they're definitely hiding something."

"You are right for thinking that. Kankuro was sent on a mission there recently…let's just say it'll make sense for them to be coming around here. I've allowed them in to see what they are here for and to try and negotiate with them. I would like to avoid any issues with other villages. Was there anything you heard them say that was out of the ordinary?"

"That's the weird thing. They barely talked at all. They were pretty quiet for just being tourists. You would think they would be more excited."

"Interesting." Gaara said. "Are you planning on staying here a while?"

"Yes." Shikamaru said.

"I hope it wouldn't be much of a bother for you to keep an eye on them, to see if you pick up on something. But I think I already have a clue what they're looking for." Gaara said. Kankuro had given him the scroll after he came back from the mission. He had then given it to the nobleman requesting the scroll.

"I can do that," Shikamaru said.

"Good. You are dismissed." Gaara stated.

But Shikamaru gulped, standing there, frozen. His heart was ready for this, but his mind wasn't. A part of him was telling him to just walk away, but he couldn't do that. He had to do this. It was now or never.

"I said you are dismissed," Gaara said, taking a sip of his tea, noticing he was still there.

But memories of the old Gaara started coming to his head…that time he was with Naruto during the Chunnin exams…how he mercilessly got rid of that shinobi, and how it left Naruto and Shikamaru paralyzed with fear.

"Is there anything else you need?" Gaara said, growing impatient.

Well, it was now or never.

"I want to marry your sister." He blurted out.

Gaara almost choked on his tea as he took another sip, putting the cup down before he nearly dropped it.

"Excuse me?" Gaara said, looking up at him skeptically.

"I said I want to marry your sister—"

"Now is not the time for jokes, especially ones about my sister. I can barely tolerate them from Naruto. Enough with this inane behavior. You are dismissed. And please refrain from picking up Naruto's habits." Gaara said irritably.

But Gaara noticed Shikamaru did not leave. This was getting him agitated. He didn't have time for this nonsense.

"I'm serious." He heard Shikamaru say.

Gaara gave him a deadly glare, standing up. Gaara immediately noticed he was unable to move.

"Nara, if you don't get me out of this _this instant_, I _will_ show you how fast my sand can move, even if I cannot." Gaara said angrily.

Whoa, Shikamaru did not like that comment. He was definitely a gonner. "I'll let you go if you just listen to me, please…I beg you."

Gaara stared at him for what felt like ages. Shikamaru never thought someone could give him such a deadly stare. It shivered his soul.

"You realize you have a lot of explaining to do if you are serious," Gaara stated, crossing his arms.

"I know," Shikamaru said, letting him go.

In an instant, he was surrounded by sand.

"Explain," Gaara said. "The first thing I would like to know is why I was not made aware of this until now."

Shikamaru sighed. The things he did for this woman. "I am deeply sorry for not informing you sooner," Shikamaru started. "The only reason I held it off was because it was Temari's wishes…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mimi was in the market again, shopping for more produce. Temari had taken her offer of using her house as refuge from her brothers, and Temari has managed to avoid them for the last couple of days. But since Temari was staying there most of the time, she had to get more food since Temari was eating for two, between the morning sickness. Luckily, the morning sickness hasn't been as bad, but she still gets it. She reminded herself to get the pickles and peanut butter. Temari had been very demanding of it, as gross as it sounded.

Mimi tiptoed for the peanut butter, but it was out of her reach.

"Darn, not this again," Mimi said, cursing her height.

But she saw another hand grab the peanut butter from behind her.

"Here you go, midget," a voice said. She already knew who it was.

"Oh, hello, Kankuro. Thank you." She said, taking it. "And I'm not a midget, I'm just fun size." She said defensively.

"…That's a midget." He said, laughing. "Is that what you tell yourself?"

Mimi gave him a flat look. "What do you want, Kankuro?"

"I'm just joking with you, sheesh." Kankuro said. "I think your height is cute."

"Yeah, whatever," Mimi grumbled, taking the last of what she needed from the market.

"I see the sun is still bothering you," he said.

"So what, are you going to call me a ghost again?"

"No, I just think you should take it off," he said, referring to that cloth over her head. She was starting to get different designs and every time he saw her she had a different one on.

"I'll take mine off if you take yours off," Mimi retorted, knowing he wasn't going to. It was her way of shutting him up.

"How about you try taking it off for me if it bothers you so much? Oh wait, you probably can't reach."

Mimi couldn't help but laugh. This guy had jokes. She rolled her eyes, purchasing what she needed, and walked out of the market into the blistering sun.

"Wait," Kankuro said, following Mimi.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask you if you've seen Temari. I think she's been avoiding me."

Mimi was lucky she had the cloth on her face, because she was a terrible liar and her facial expression would have given herself away.

"Oh, is that so?" Mimi said, playing dumb. "Why would she be avoiding you?"

"I don't know. I thought she would have told you something being that you and her have been all buddy buddy lately and telling each other secrets."

"We're not 'telling each other secrets,'" Mimi stated. "I don't know where you came down with that conclusion. We're just exchanging recipes and doing normal stuff. I don't even see her that often."

"Where's Temari?" Kankuro asked.

"I don't know," Mimi lied. "I assure you she's fine. She probably just wants some alone time."

"You're a terrible liar." He told her. "I know you know where she is. Stop playing stupid, you twig, or I'll snap you in two."

"I already told you I don't know. Now stop giving me empty threats. It's not gonna make me say any more than what I already know."

"Fine, I'll do it the hard way, then, and tell the Kazekage."

Mimi froze for a split second, then thought of Temari's well-being. Temari needed some time to think this through before she will end up telling her brothers anything, and she wasn't about to crack just because he threatened to tell the Kazekage. It sounded scary, but she was just gonna have to deal with it then. Temari put her trust on her and she wasn't going to ruin that just because Kankuro wanted to be stubborn and pushy. A part of her felt bad because she knew he was concerned, but she couldn't tell him. That was for Temari to tell him, not her.

"Go ahead then," Mimi snapped. "I already said I don't know anything."

She walked away, not wanting to hear any more of this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I was looking all over for you, you troublesome woman," Temari heard a familiar voice say. She was standing on the top of a roof, looking over Suna. She now understood why her brother would do this. It gave her peace of mind.

She couldn't believe it. Was he really here? She turned around, to see the lazy genius, _her_ lazy genius, standing before her.

"Shikamaru…" she said, hugging him. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," he said, kissing her head. "Can we get off of this roof? I want to talk to you about something important."

"I need to tell you something important, too…" Temari said. "But let's go somewhere else first."

"How about I take you out somewhere? To the nicest restaurant in Suna?"

"You don't have to do that, Shikamaru—"

"I insist. You deserve it. Not being around you was painful enough. I want to do something nice for you. Come on," he said, gently taking her hand.

Temari followed him, hoping that he would feel the same way once she broke the news to him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You look beautiful," Shikamaru said to Temari as they were eating the best food in all of Suna.

"Oh, stop it. I'm not even dressed up today," She said, embarrassed.

"That doesn't mean anything. You know I love you."

"I love you too, Shikamaru." Temari said, smiling.

"That's why I told your brother about us."

Temari looked straight at him, almost angry, but more worried. "What?! Which one?! Shikamaru….why would you do that?"

"I told Gaara. Granted, I almost died in the process, but I didn't care. I got tired of hiding it, Temari. So I told him everything."

"What about Kankuro?"

"…I couldn't find him. I have no idea where he went, so I was going to talk to him later."

"…And what did you tell Gaara?"

"That I'm sorry for not telling him sooner. That I love you more than anything, and I would do anything for you. I would protect you. I would even die for you…I basically begged him. And I told him that I want to marry you."

Temari couldn't believe her ears. Was Shikamaru really telling her this?

"…What?" Was all she could say.

"I showed him this." Shikamaru said, getting down on one knee.

No, this couldn't be happening right now…this had to be a dream. Temari saw the most beautiful diamond ring she'd ever seen.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes! Of course!" Temari said, feeling tears of joy starting to spill from her eyes as he put the ring on.

He wiped her tears away. "I thought I was supposed to be the crybaby," he joked before kissing her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mimi climbed on top of the counter, putting the food she just bought in the cabinets, since they were too high for her to reach. A few moments later, there was a loud knock on the door, making her jump and slip off the counter.

_Thump._

"Ouuuuch…" Mimi said, rubbing her arm. At least she didn't hit her head this time.

She walked to the door, expecting Temari. She wasn't home when Mimi had come in.

"…Kankuro?" She said as she opened the door. She had forgotten that she gave Temari a copy of her keys. She didn't have to knock.

This guy was so damn stubborn. She knew what he was here for. She let him in, knowing there was no arguing with him. And lucky for her, Temari wasn't here.

"What the hell were you doing?" Kankuro asked curiously, hearing the loud thump from the outside of her apartment.

"Putting the groceries away."

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine." Mimi said. If she told him what happened, he would never let her live it down.

But he seemed to have figured it out, looking at where the groceries were located. He just smirked.

"You should be more careful," was all he said.

"I'm surprised you're not making fun of my everyday struggles as a 'midget'." Mimi said.

"No, I had enough making fun of you today. I came for another reason."

Mimi rolled her eyes. Here we go again. "And what is that reason?"

"Temari is staying here, isn't she? That's why you were at the market again."

Mimi didn't have the cloth over her head to hide her face. "No, can you stop with this? She's not here; I don't know where she's at. I'm very sorry, I can't help you."

"You're such a liar!"

"Am not!"

"Then why is Temari's shirt on your couch?" He said, picking up a purple shirt.

"That's mine." Mimi lied.

"Yeah, because it's like twice your size." Kankuro said. "Stop bullshitting me."

"I didn't know it was a crime to wear big t-shirts." Mimi said, getting annoyed.

"Yeah, and it's completely normal to wear shoes a size bigger than your feet, too."

Mimi looked at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Those." He said, pointing to one of Temari's shoes scattered in the hallway near the room.

"Those aren't hers, those are Rubi's."

"You're a terrible liar. Temari wears those all the time."

"Stop interrogating me!" Mimi said. "Weren't you going to go see your brother or something?"

Before Kankuro could reply, Mimi's door opened again, Temari and a man with a spiky ponytail walking in. This must be Shikamaru. Mimi had wanted to meet him…but now _really_ wasn't the time.

_Uh oh_…Mimi thought when she saw the look on Kankuro's face when they both walked in.

"Temari, I was looking all over for you—what the fuck is this?" He said after he saw the ring on her finger. It was hard to miss. It was a really big, beautiful diamond. Wow, Mimi was so happy for her! But…chaos was about to erupt. She'll congratulate her later.

"Kankuro, let me explain—" Temari said, but he already grabbed Shikamaru, his fist raised.

"I'm going to give you five seconds to explain this shit." He said to Shikamaru.

"Kankuro, get off of him! You're being ridiculous!" Temari said, trying to pull him off.

"Temari, no!" Mimi said, rushing to her and gently walked Temari to the couch before going to try and get Kankuro off of Shikamaru herself…but there was another knock on the door.

This was just getting too chaotic. Who could it be _now_?

"…Lord Kazekage?" Mimi said. Well, that was one person she was not expecting at all.

"Hello, Himitsu. I'm sorry to bother you. I wanted to know if you've seen Kankuro. I have been looking for him to tell him something important."

"Get me out of your stupid jutsu, _now_!" Mimi and Gaara heard Kankuro say.

"Not until you give me more than five seconds to explain," they heard Shikamaru say.

"Well, I seem to have found him," the Kazekage said.

"Um…you can come in if you like…" Mimi said.

She didn't know if letting the Kazekage into this chaos was the politest thing, but she didn't know what else to do. The person he was looking for was here, after all.

"Fine, you have ten seconds."

"Let him go, Shikamaru, I will explain it to him." Gaara said as he walked inside.

Shikamaru let him go, and Kankuro took the opportunity to grab him again. "Not before I knock him once."

"No!" Mimi said, rushing in between them before he could hit him. "Please stop this! Listen to the Kazekage!"

"Himitsu, please sit on the couch," Gaara said, pulling her gently from between the two guys.

Luckily, Kankuro had already let Shikamaru go, and was just staring daggers at him.

"Yes, Lord Kazekage," Mimi said, sitting next to Temari, giving her an apologetic look.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

An hour later, Mimi was serving all of her guests drinks as they talked over the whole situation. She was just grateful there was no fight. Poor Shikamaru. He seemed to be handling everything pretty well though.

Himitsu decided to spend most of her time in the kitchen, preparing something for her guests. She felt it wasn't her place to be in the middle of all that.

"Himitsu," Mimi heard from behind her.

"Lord Kazekage," Mimi said, turning around to see him standing at the entrance of the kitchen. "Would you like something else to drink?"

"No, thank you," he said. "I wanted to apologize for the inconvenience that was caused today. This is not the first time my brother's behavior has caused such chaos."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Lord Kazekage! I'm just glad everything is figured out."

He nodded. "I also want to thank you for offering hospitality to my sister in her time of need. I hope your intentions for my brother and my sister is good. I was shocked at Kankuro's reaction today."

"I assure you I have no bad intentions for your family or for the village. I wanted to thank you for allowing me hospitality in Suna." Mimi said. "But why were you so shocked at Kankuro's reaction? I would think it would be a normal reaction, since he had no knowledge of what was going on."

"I'm not referring to that. He is not an easy person to calm down when he is upset, but you seemed to have done it effortlessly. I thought I would have had to resort to using my sand on him."

"Really?" Mimi said, a bit surprised. "I had no idea. I was just trying to keep the peace."

He nodded. "Interesting."

"Kankuro, stop asking Shikamaru stupid questions!" Mimi heard Temari say.

"These are questions he should know the answer to," Kankuro said.

"Do I really have to answer that?" Shikamaru said. "Well, if you insist. Her favorite color when she was younger was purple."

"Wait, you actually knew that?" Temari asked. "I don't remember ever telling you that!"

"It's because he's a genius. He's reading your mind, Temari. I'm going to have to make these questions harder," Kankuro said.

"You idiot! That's Ino's ability, not Shikamaru's!"

"I think I should go back over there," Gaara said, rushing out of the kitchen.

Mimi eventually finished the sushi she prepared that Temari taught her how to make. From the way it sounded, the Kazekage seemed to stop the interrogation. Walking to the dining area when she finished everything, all she heard was normal conversation…and one piece of news that no one knew yet, apparently.

"I'm pregnant."

"_What?!_" Was all Mimi heard from all three guys at the same time.

"You defiled my sister!"

"I had no idea—"

_Uh oh._ Mimi thought. "Who wants sushi?" Mimi said, rushing in to try and ease the tension.

XXXXXXXXXX

Far away from Sunagakure, in an isolated cave in the mountains of Earth Country, sat a mysterious creature covered in a long, black hooded cloak. It was small, pale, and wrinkled, looking like a mutated fetus. The creature heard footsteps echoing in the cave.

There was a nobleman, dressed in silk and jade, with long, white hair that traveled down his back. But the elegant look did not last for long, for the disguise faded away, into a man with white hair, tied back into a short ponytail, and round glasses.

He looked down at the creature below him, kneeling.

"It's a shame to see you in this state," the shinobi said to the creature.

"…I have been greatly weakened, but our task is almost complete. With these four scrolls, my ambition for immortality will succeed, and I will finally gain strength. Were you successful in obtaining the last scroll needed?"

"Yes, Lord. It was basically handed to me," the shinobi said, fixing his glasses.

"Take out the scroll," The creature ordered, turning its shriveled, wrinkled head toward the shinobi, opening its slits that were eyes.

The shinobi took out the scroll with the green glow, and it immediately turned light blue.

"Yes, this is it…it senses the presence of the other three. There is no time to waste, we must do this now. Place me and the scrolls in its proper positions, and start to make the rest of the preparations."

"Yes, Lord." The shinobi said.

The shinobi made hand signals, creating markings on the floor. There was a circle designed with sacred geometry inside, with four lines on each quarter right outside the circle. The shinobi placed the creature in the center of the circle placing the other three scrolls in their designated areas. These scrolls also glowed green, but turned different colors when it sensed the presence of the other scrolls.

The scroll placed in the south quadrant of the circle glowed red; the scroll in the east quadrant glowed into different pulsating lights of brown and green; the scroll in the west quadrant glowed a crystallized clear, and finally, the scroll in the north quadrant glowed light blue.

"Perfect…I feel its power already…" The creature said evilly.

The circle and the lines connected to it started to glow into a blinding, white light which filled the whole cave, and then all the shinobi heard was a piercing, soul shattering screech.

**A/N: And that's the end of this chapter. I'm sorry if the romantic moments were too cheesy or OOC. **


	7. The Queen Returns

**A/N: Next chapter! So many thoughts, so challenging to organize them into a cohesive chapter. I was never really good with details…X.X**

As twilight slowly came in Suna, Sari sighed, trying to think of other ways to try and entertain these new visitors. _Suna has been getting really popular lately_, she thought. Her mission for today was to pretend she was a normal civilian, and entertain the visitors for today. Shikamaru, a Konoha shinobi who came here often, assured her that he would be here by the end of the day, and to keep an open ear about what they say, and if something sounds out of the ordinary, report it straight to the Kazekage. But nightfall was coming soon, and she was running out of ideas! She really hoped he would be coming around soon. Then Sari had an idea. Maybe if she pretended to leave them alone for one second, they would probably end up saying something they wouldn't say in front of her. She may look like a normal civilian to them, but that didn't mean normal civilians didn't have a basic understanding of when there might be a threat to their village. She smiled at her own genius, and turned to the visitors, who were thankful that the sun was setting. All they were talking about all day was how much the sun bothered them. From their ghostly pale appearance, she assumed that they must be from far up North.

"Hey guys, you must be thirsty from all the walking around we did today. Would you like me to get you some bottles of water?"

All of them nodded their head, saying how thirsty they were.

_Perfect,_ Sari thought, walking away and hiding behind a corner where they wouldn't be able to see her. If Shikamaru wasn't coming, then she had no choice but to leave things in her own hands.

"It's a nice place, but way too hot. How do people live like this?" One of the visitors started to say.

"Yeah, no wonder it's so isolated. I don't think any normal person would want to live here…"

Yadda. Yadda. Not important…she was almost convinced that these people had nothing to hide…then Sari heard something that didn't make sense the longer she listened.

"The girl showed us everything! There doesn't seem to be any specific place where this scroll would be hidden…" One of the visitors said.

"And there's no clue about the whereabouts of the thief and the hostage, either."

"The elders will be greatly disappointed."

What was that about a scroll? And there was a thief and a hostage somewhere in this village?! This was definitely something the Kazekage should be informed about! Sari tried to see if she could eavesdrop on more information, but they went back to talking about normal things, and then started complaining about where the girl went with the water.

Before she could return, she heard one of them cry out.

"Hey, we can't move!"

She felt someone behind her, and she turned around, to see Shikamaru standing behind her.

"About time!" She whispered. "I was running out of ideas!"

But Sari noticed what he planned. He expected them to slip up if Sari were to entertain them. They would be less likely to suspect she'll hear anything out of the ordinary, and probably less likely to report it, especially if she was dressed normally. If it was left up to him, he probably wouldn't have gotten anything out of them, since he was the one who escorted them. They probably already had some type of background information on him if their intentions were what he suspected. And this plan saved a lot of unnecessary effort on his part. Temari's comments on him were right. He was a lazy ass.

"You did a good job in sneaking information out of them. I'll hold 'em here. Go get the Kazekage."

Sari nodded, getting ready to leave…but then she noticed something. "What on earth happened to your face? What were you doing?" Sari asked, as she noticed he had a big black eye. "Did something happen that we have to tell the Kazekage about?"

Sari noticed he got a pained look on his face as if her question reminded him of the traumatizing events that caused his injury. "Long story," he said. "It's nothing to worry about that's mission related."

"Okaaay…" Sari said, deciding to run off to get the Kazekage. He obviously didn't want to talk about it. She hoped he was right about it not being related to their tasks.

_Earlier that day…_

"Who wants sushi?" Mimi said nervously. The anger in the room was almost tangible.

No one answered her question.

In an instant, Kankuro was in front of Shikamaru, ready to punch him. He was ignoring Temari, who was telling him to stop.

Mimi looked at the Kazekage, who seemed all too comfortable where he was sitting. He obviously wasn't going to try and stop his brother this time.

This time, unfortunately, Kankuro didn't give Shikamaru five seconds to explain anything.

Mimi cringed. God _damn,_ that looked painful!

Mimi quickly put the plate of sushi down, rushing toward Kankuro and Shikamaru. Luckily she was able to stop Shikamaru from getting hit a second time.

Shikamaru had expected more than one hit, and then noticed that the short girl named Mimi was standing in between them. What was up with him getting saved by women? Whatever. One punch was troublesome enough. He already felt his eye start to swell, with a throbbing pain. He didn't know what was funnier though: the fact that she thought she could hold him back, or the fact that it was actually working. Regardless, he was happy he didn't have to waste his time fighting back. That was way too troublesome.

Kankuro was still upset though. He ended up storming out of the apartment soon after, with his brother following him a minute later.

"That escalated quickly…" Mimi said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Back at the present moment…_

"Thank you for your assistance. You are dismissed for today." Gaara told Shikamaru after Sari brought him.

"Are you sure you don't—"

"No. You are dismissed." Gaara said sternly.

Shikamaru took that as a warning that he was still very upset from earlier, and walked away, going to go talk to Temari.

Gaara faced the group of visitors, eyeing them with his usual, serious glare.

"Due to the nature of your conversation earlier, you will have to follow me for questioning, and will be held here until further notice."

"That girl was spying on us…we should have known," one of them said.

"Is he the Kazekage?"

"We're in trouble…"

"I'm still thirsty…"

"I do not wish to make this any more difficult than it is. I expect full cooperation," Gaara said before turning to Sari. "Great work, Sari. Please find Kankuro and tell him to come to my office immediately. He should be near the vicinity of the building."

"Yes, Lord Kazekage."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day, Mimi sighed, reviewing the payroll of the company. So far, the budget seemed to be fairly balanced, but there could be some improvements. There was always room for improvement. Her focus was interrupted when she heard someone walk near her desk.

"Hey, wanna come with me for lunch?" Mimi heard someone say.

Looking up, she saw it was a familiar outgoing redhead.

"Hey Rubi. Is it lunchtime already? Time is going by so fast today."

"Come to lunch with me. I feel like we haven't spoken in like, ever! You've been so immersed in your work I feel like you've forgotten about me. I'm just a couple of floors downstairs from you. A 'hello' would be nice."

"Aw, I'm sorry, I haven't forgotten about you, Rubi. There has just been…a lot going on." Mimi said, trying to figure out a general way to explain what happened without giving away too much.

"We can talk about it during lunch."

"Fine…" Mimi said.

The two girls decided to sit on a bench outside, being that the day wasn't as hot as it normally was. There was still sushi left over from yesterday, so Mimi brought it with her, offering Rubi some.

"This is good, did you make this?" Rubi said with her mouth full.

"Thanks, Temari taught me how to do it."

"Oh, so that's who you've been hanging out with. It's fine, you can go hang out with Temari and just forget about me." She said playfully.

Mimi laughed. "No, it's not like that. I haven't forgotten about you. I've just been having a crazy week."

"Spill," Rubi said. "It has something to do with that Kankuro guy doesn't it?"

"What? No—well, not completely. Why would you assume it has something to do with him?"

"Because he looks like the type to cause you trouble."

"He's not causing me trouble. No one's causing me trouble."

"Then what happened?"

"Oh, nothing much. I've just been running a lot of errands so I can make my home more comfortable for Temari. She's been staying there lately."

"Why?" Rubi asked, taking another piece of sushi. Mimi had told Rubi that Temari was the one who helped show her around Suna.

"She's been having some family issues. I felt bad so I let her stay since she's been so nice to me." Mimi said. "And I'm making accommodations for her fiancé, too, for now."

"That's crazy, Mimi!" Rubi said.

"I know, I know, but they don't intend to stay for long; just until they get everything figured out. I feel so bad. The poor guy got a black eye yesterday. I hope he's doing okay. He left shortly after because he said he had business to take care of…probably mission related."

"What?! There was a fight yesterday?!"

Mimi nodded. "Luckily I stopped Kankuro before it escalated…I'm a huge wimp when it comes to fights."

"What does Kankuro have to do with this? Why on earth was he there?" Rubi asked, confused.

"I don't know if I told you. Temari and Kankuro are brother and sister."

"Aaah, I see." Rubi said, finally understanding. "Wow, it sucks that you had to get caught in the middle of that. Lucky he has a soft spot for you. He probably would have killed Temari's fiancé."

"Who? Kankuro?" Mimi asked. "That guy does _not_ have a soft spot for me. He always makes fun of my height and threatened to snap me in two yesterday! I don't know how you came up with that."

"Uh, maybe because I caught him checking you out last week before we went to the bar?" Rubi said, smirking.

"No he wasn't. You're just making a mountain out of a molehill."

"Fine, don't believe me."

"I don't. You always try to be matchmaker for all of our co-workers." Mimi said bluntly, not up for Rubi's antics.

"No I don't! I just really think there's some potential there!"

"Just like you thought there was potential between Sutera and that creepy janitor from the second floor?" Mimi said, not wanting to indulge in this. "I think our lunch break is almost done. I should be getting back to work. I'll see you when my shift is over. I haven't asked you how your week went."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Here, this should help bring the swelling down," Temari said to Shikamaru, giving him a small ice pack. "I'm so sorry for the way all this turned out. This is the exact reason why I didn't want my brothers to know. Maybe I should have told them I was pregnant when you weren't around."

"They had to find out eventually." Shikamaru said, sighing. "The things I do for you, woman. I actually expected worse. I'm surprised I'm still alive."

Temari sighed, sitting down next to him, putting her head on his shoulder affectionately.

"Shika…"

"Hn?"

"…I never got to ask you…about how you feel about me being pregnant."

"You really want to know how I feel?" Shikamaru said.

"Yes." Temari said. What kind of a question was that? That could only mean that he wasn't ready…

"You were in on the plan." He said.

Temari looked up at him, confused. "What plan?"

"All you troublesome woman planned to get pregnant around the same time."

Temari just stared at him, trying to process what he just said.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Shikamaru said as he felt a hard smack on the back of his head.

"What kind of an answer is that?" Temari said angrily.

"Well, what did you expect me to say? Don't you think that's a huge coincidence?"

Temari groaned in frustration. "You can be such an insensitive ass."

"What did I do?" Shikamaru said. He can never understand this woman.

"I ask you how you feel about me being pregnant and all you can say is that I was in on some stupid plan?"

Oh, Shikamaru was getting it now. This was turning into one of those conversations where the woman was making the guy talk about feelings…how troublesome.

"Well, what do you expect me to say?"

"Um, I don't know Shikamaru, how about letting me know if you want it? If you're ready? If you're upset?" She said sarcastically. "How can someone with such a high IQ be so dense?"

"Because I thought it was obvious."

"Go on."

He smiled. "Of course I want it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A couple of hours later…_

"I've tried everything, Lord Kazekage. They're refusing to speak. If you want me to get any information out of them, we would have to end up taking more drastic measures," a sand shinobi specializing in interrogation told Gaara.

"That's not necessary. Hold them for now. I will have to inform the leader of their village. You are dismissed."

The sand shinobi nodded, and walked out of the office.

Gaara angrily turned to Kankuro, who was in the office with him.

"They are looking for the scroll, but that is expected." Gaara said. "Why is it that Sari heard them say something about a hostage?"

Kankuro stood quiet.

"Did you take Himitsu as a hostage, Kankuro?" Gaara asked. "That is not what you told me when you initially returned. You simply said you encountered her on the roof and that she agreed to help you."

"How would she be a hostage if they kicked her out?" Kankuro said irritably.

"That's not answering my question, and from the way it sounds that is not how they see it." Gaara answered sternly.

"Fine, I did take her as a hostage…at first."

Gaara gave him a glare Kankuro thought he would never see again.

"Why on _earth_ would you do that? Do you know the type of trouble we could get in with this other village for something like that? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you would want to send her back. She didn't even want to be there anyway."

Gaara couldn't believe he was hearing this nonsense from his older brother. "That doesn't excuse your behavior. You're not leaving on any type of mission until this whole thing gets figured out. I would have never expected this from you. What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he grumbled.

"Ever since she's gotten here you've been acting differently. Do you have feelings for this woman?"

"No."

"You're lying." Gaara said. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

"I'm not lying!" Kankuro said angrily. "And even if I did, I don't see why you care."

"It _does_ concern me when the whole village is at risk of infiltration because you decided to take this woman as a hostage! I'm done with this absurdity, Kankuro. Contact with her is forbidden. I don't want you speaking to her anymore. All it has done is cause trouble, and she's getting sent back where she came from once I speak to their village leader."

"What?! You can't do that!"

"I _can_, and I will." Gaara stated coldly.

Kankuro was furious. He didn't know why, but he didn't want Mimi to leave. It would be unnecessary. All these years he tolerated all of Gaara's shit, even when he was acting like a psycho. But Gaara couldn't even let him have his way with this one thing.

"I'm not going to let you do that," Kankuro said. "I'm going to speak to her anyway."

"Now is not the time for your stubbornness. You are forbidden."

"Whether I talk to her or not isn't going to make a difference!" Kankuro argued. "And you should be the last one talking about doing forbidden things!"

"What do you mean?" Gaara said, eyeing him angrily.

"Oh, did you forget?" Kankuro said mockingly. "Let me remind you that _I'm_ not the one trying to make out with my own student! But you don't see me judging you."

Gaara's eyes widened, not expecting that accusation.

"I was not trying to make out with Matsuri." Gaara denied. "Do not attempt to turn this around on me."

"Okay, fine, how about I tell the elders about how _precious_ she is to you—"

"Get out of my office." Gaara said crossly, he face getting as red as his hair. He didn't know Kankuro heard him say that.

"If Mimi leaves, I'm telling the elders about your intentions with Matsuri."

"_Get_. _OUT!_"

"…Fine."

Kankuro stormed out angrily, slamming the door loudly before leaving the building.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kankuro walked through the sand village angrily, not really sure where he was going. He can't believe his brother had the nerve to yell at him like that. Being angry, he ended up bumping into someone that he didn't see walking in front of him.

"Watch where you're going!" He said heatedly until he saw the person he knocked down on the floor. Recognizing the round hazel eyes behind the cloth over the person's head, he felt his heart skip a beat. "…I'm sorry Mimi," he told her before helping her get up.

"I take it you're still upset," Mimi said, assuming he was still upset about the incident with Shikamaru. "I think I have something that'll make you feel better."

"Really?" Kankuro asked, curious what it could be.

He saw Mimi fumble through a small purse she was holding, and took out a small box of cigarettes.

"Here, try one."

Kankuro couldn't help but smirk at her boldness, but didn't know whether to laugh or be upset, or disappointed.

"Gimme the whole box," he said, taking the box from her hands, before tossing it in a garbage bin some distance away.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?"

"I thought you stopped smoking those things. They're bad for you."

"So what? They help when I'm upset. Luckily, I haven't been upset, so I haven't touched them. But if you don't like cigarettes, maybe a drink will help."

Kankuro stared at her. "You have terrible ways of coping. Is this the type of advice you give people? No wonder you wanted to jump off a roof."

"Sorry, I'd rather not yell at people and punch them in the face when I'm upset," Mimi joked, referring to his recent actions.

"You should try it one day. It's refreshing." He said, smiling.

"Well at least you won't have to do it again this time. I made you smile."

She was right, she did. He forgot what he was upset about for a moment.

"You should smile more. You look handsome when you smile. When you're upset…I don't' like seeing you upset. It's quite scary. Well, I don't like seeing anyone upset."

"Because you're a wimp who hides behind a cloth."

"Can't you just take a compliment? Sheesh, you're always getting at me about the cloth I wear over my head!"

"It gets annoying talking to a pair of eyes all the time."

"I'll take it off if you let me take off your hat."

"Fine," he said, leaning down to take her cloth off. "Much better."

Mimi looked at him, wondering how he looks without his hat. She never noticed how handsome he was. She had never gotten a good look at him until now.

"Hey Mimi! I was looking all over for you! Didn't you say we were gonna—oh I'm sorry." Rubi said.

Mimi turned away from Kankuro to see who was talking to her, and completely forgot that she was supposed to be waiting for Rubi after work.

"Oh, hey Rubi." Mimi just realized how her and Kankuro were standing that could look a certain way in another perspective. "No! It's not the way it looks."

Rubi smirked. "Right. Anyways, Ryu is finally back from a mission he was sent on. Wanna come with me to see him?"

"Sure," Mimi said. "Hey Kankuro—"

"Don't even bother asking me. I'm taking this as my cue to leave," he said, walking away.

Mimi laughed as he walked away. "I do hope he's okay. He was still upset."

"He'll get over it." Rubi said. "What were the two of you doing anyway? It looked like you were gonna kiss."

"No, we weren't going to kiss." Mimi said.

But a part of her wasn't so sure about that. What would have happened if Rubi didn't find her?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Some time passed, and Shimo-sama and a couple of other snow shinobi finally entered the gates of Suna, with the Kazekage waiting for them. Gaara had sent a letter to the leader of the village some time ago concerning the motives of the snow shinobi that were disguised as tourists that came recently.

The weather in Suna had been unnaturally cool lately during the day, with clouds forming more frequently over the normally clear blue sky. Gaara had an eerie feeling that difficult times were coming, and he had to be more alert than he usually was.

As the elder and the shinobi accompanying her entered the village, he gestured them to follow him, and they ended up in a room with a long table, lined with many chairs.

"I want to apologize for the inconvenience, Lord Kazekage." Shimo-sama started to say as they all sat down. "I assure you we had no ill intentions in entering the village. I felt it would have been best to attempt to retrieve the scroll and the hostage back in secret, due to the dangerous nature of this. But it seems as if the scroll is no longer here."

"I handed the scroll to a nobleman who desired to have it after it was given to me." Gaara said. "We no longer have this scroll that you speak of. What danger do you speak of?"

Shimo-sama sighed. "I was afraid of it to come to this. I understand that your shinobi were simply hired to do what was asked of them, but that scroll needs to be retrieved back immediately and put in a safe place. If the scroll goes in the wrong hands, which it most likely has already, the weather of the world can become chaotic, and wipe out most animal and human life."

Gaara's eyes widened. "I already sense it is starting," he said, referring to the gradually cooling weather. "if you don't mind me asking, what is in that scroll?"

"…Our Queen." Shimo-sama said, looking down.

"Your Queen?" Gaara asked. "You had a queen?"

Shimo-sama nodded. "Not many know of this story, but she once was a very benevolent queen, ruling over our island in peace and harmony. But something changed. It is rumored that she had become involved in dark magic. She craved power to protect her people, but nothing good comes out of tampering with dark magic…I had tried to warn her, but it was already too late. She had become corrupted, using the power she obtained to try and take over other islands and the main land, with ambitions to expand an empire further south. We couldn't let this happen. We used our best shinobi to lock her away forever. But she vowed that she will return, and once she returned, she will cause the world to live in eternal winter under her rule. This was long ago, when I was young. Not many of our villagers know this today. No one had talked about, and the ones who witnessed it have already passed away."

"This is very serious." Gaara said. "I will do my best to assist you to obtain the scroll back if this is the case."

"I appreciate your offer, but that is not the whole story."

"Go on."

"The Queen's power was too much for one scroll to handle. We ended up splitting her soul into four different scrolls. We separated the scrolls, keeping one for us to hide. We gave the scrolls to other faraway lands, in hopes that the scrolls shall never come together again. We had told these lands that the scrolls would bring good luck and harmony, and immortality for their nation if they will never be opened and put away in a heavily guarded, hidden area. If you already sense the change of weather, then that means that the four scrolls have been united once again. If this is the case, it is not one scroll we must obtain, but four."

"I see." Gaara said. "It seems like a greedy individual obtained all four of the scrolls, not knowing its true nature. I can attempt to find where the nobleman requesting the scroll is located. It could help us in trying to get to the other three."

"We can try, but I feel it would be futile. If the person managed to get the scrolls together, then they are probably no longer alive."

Gaara nodded. "As of now, we have no choice. There are no other options."

Shimo-sama nodded. "We would also like to get our villagers back."

Gaara nodded. "Of course, the villagers here have already been released and are waiting for you."

"And the hostage, as well." Shimo-sama added.

Gaara contemplated for a minute. "To be honest with you, Shimo-sama, she seems quite happy here and has no intentions of returning. I was informed that she was kicked out, initially."

"Yes, that was my mistake." Shimo-sama said. "She is not in her right state of mind and she needs to be dealt with by us."

"If you insist, I can bring her to you so the both of you can discuss that tomorrow."

Before anything more could be discussed, there was a knock on the door, and it was opened slowly.

"Matsuri, we are in the middle of an important meeting," Gaara said as he saw her come in slowly.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Matsuri said. "But there is an emergency. There is a man who came to the gates asking for our help. We got some medical nin to see what was wrong with him, because he was stabbed by some type of icicle. He says if we don't help him, we'll all be in grave danger."

"Describe this man." Gaara said.

"Long, white hair, and silk robes." Matsuri said. "He looks like he has an affluent background."

Gaara stood up. "It seems we didn't have to search for the man we intended to look for." He said to Shimo-sama. "Make sure he gets proper treatment. We have some questions to ask him."

By the time they got to the man, he was already unconscious, and didn't look like the way Matsuri described him.

"He was using a jutsu," one of the medical nin said. "It went away once he fell unconscious."

Gaara looked down. Instead of a nobleman, he saw a familiar man with white hair and glasses. "Kabuto…I should have known."

"He came with nothing but these, Lord Kazekage," One of the medical nin said, giving him a bag.

Inside, was the four scrolls.

"I'm going to have to request backup. This could turn out badly." Gaara said, after seeing what was in the bag.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Flashback_

The cave turned back to its normal state, the blinding light fading gradually. But there was something different. In front of Kabuto wasn't the weakened Orochimaru, but a woman with light blue skin, and a long, white royal dress with furs and a large, golden crown.

"Who are you? What have you done with Lord Orochimaru?"

"That imbecile has taken my place, suffering the same torture I have suffered for what seemed like eternities. I am finally free! Now that the seal is broken, I can come and go within the scrolls as I please. As for your friend…I have him locked there."

"You were supposed to grant him immortality!"

The Queen laughed. "Is that what was told to you fools? You are both gullible! He deserved his fate if that what you sought me for."

"Bring him back!" Kabuto said, getting in a fighting stance.

The Queen scoffed, tossing all of his weapons in all directions with a wave of her hand. "You're no threat to me. But let's make a deal…I will grant you some of my power, and give you Lord Orochimaru back if you work for me and grant me my wishes. When this world is mine, I will promise you a most rewarding postion."

Kabuto glared at her, contemplating her offer. "How do I know to trust you?"

She smiled evilly. "Because you don't have a choice," she said, creating a huge dagger of ice, tossing it in his direction with a wave of her hand. It was too fast for Kabuto to dodge, and he hunched over in pain as it pierced his abdomen.

"Take me to the kingdom where you have received me," she ordered, exiting the cave, bringing clouds into the skies. Snow started sprinkling to the ground. "That shall be the place I will reside. I will remove the dagger of ice once you take me there. And if you fail to obey my orders, you will die a slow, torturous death as that dagger freezes you to death from the inside out, for it will not melt until you take your last breath," she said, laughing evilly before disappearing as a cool, icy air crystals that planted itself onto one of the scrolls.

Kabuto grunted as he tried to travel the best he can with the dagger through him. He had to go back to Suna; they would be able to help him get this ice dagger out. But they wouldn't trust him. He had to use his disguise as the nobleman. That was the only way.

He left the cave, struggling to maneuver the best he can with the dagger pierced through him, as he felt the temperatures drop in the land of earth as it continued to snow.

**A/N: What will happen next? O.O stay tuned!**


	8. Interrogation

**A/N: Hey guys. Here's the next chapter. I wanted to finish it sooner…but shit happens, lol. I was a bit confused as to how I should start this one, but here it is. xP P.S. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. **

Mimi knocked on the door nervously, awaiting the person on the other side of the door to open it. Lord Kazekage had sent Matsuri to inform her that Shimo-sama was here, and she had requested to speak to her.

Mimi felt her heart flutter irregularly as she heard the click of the door opening. It was a snow shinobi that opened the door. Inside was a normal room with a long table and chairs. Matsuri told her that the Kazekage allowed Shimo-sama to use the room to discuss what she needed to discuss with her.

Mimi walked in awkwardly, not knowing whether to just stand there or sit down in one of the chairs. She didn't expect to ever see Shimo-sama, or anything dealing with her past again. And at this point, she was almost ready to put it behind her…but here it was again, in her face. What did they want?

"Sit down, Himitsu." Shimo-sama said.

Mimi sat down, suddenly interested in her fingernails. She didn't have much courage to look her in the face.

"I need to ask you a couple of questions. I would like it if you were to look at me." Shimo-sama said.

Mimi meekly looked up at Shimo-sama and at the other shinobi that were sitting at the table with her.

"There is no reason to be scared." One of the shinobi said. "We just want to clarify some things."

Mimi didn't feel scared. Why did they think she was scared? It was embarrassment and shame more than anything. She wasn't looking forward to dealing with the biggest mistake she probably made in her life so soon, even though she had no regrets about it, to be honest. She wasn't in Suna for that long…and then it made her think what on earth they were doing here. Did they discuss everything with the Kazekage about the bank being robbed? Was a war going to start between them? Mimi didn't know, and she probably won't find out. It wasn't her place to ask.

"We want to inform you that you don't have to be nervous about coming back to the village," Shimo-sama said. "I understand that I told you that you weren't allowed to return, but it was a mistake on my part. I should have considered the circumstances you were put in."

Mimi was confused. "What circumstances?"

"You were taken as a hostage, Himitsu. The person who robbed the bank was reported to have threatened your life if the snow shinobi on the roof were not to drop his weapons. Is that not true?"

"Yes, that's true…" Mimi said.

"So did you associate yourself with the three wanted shinobi because you were forced to?"

"No…" Mimi said. "I did it willingly. Since you didn't allow me to go back into the village, I made a deal with them…but instead of going through with the deal, I was offered to come with them instead."

"Did you feel threatened in any way?"

"No, not at all. They treated me well."

Shimo-sama stood quiet for a moment.

"You do know you have to come back with us, Himitsu."

"Why? I don't want to leave. I actually have friends here. I'm happier here." Mimi said almost instinctively.

"It sounds like she has Stockholm Syndrome," one of the shinobi said.

"We would have to take you with us for your treatment." Shimo-sama said.

"I don't have Stockholm Syndrome!" Mimi said defiantly, in utter disbelief at that statement. "He took me hostage for like five minutes and then made a deal with me. I left with him willingly!"

"Do you still have thoughts of suicide?" a snow shinobi then asked.

"No!" Mimi said getting fed up with the interrogation. "I appreciate the offer, I really do. It hurt when I was told that I couldn't come back…but I've moved on from that. I don't mind the thought of returning to our village, but I know I'll be more content here for the time being. I'm sorry; I'm not interested in leaving with you, at least not right now."

"Are you still associating yourself with the shinobi who took you hostage?" Shimo-sama asked.

"…Yes."

"Himitsu, we will not force you to leave, but we advise against associating yourself with him. It sounds like he has manipulated you into staying here."

"That's nonsense." Mimi said irritably at how stupid this all sounded. "He hasn't manipulated me into doing anything."

"Watch your tone while speaking to the elder," one of the snow shinobi said.

"This is not your home, Himitsu." Shimo-sama said. "The Kazekage is allowing you to stay here, but he also agrees that you are forbidden to speak to the individual that took you hostage. He has spoken to us about the situation, and says that taking you was not the intention of the mission, and he is cooperating with us to fix this issue. He also informed us that the individual at hand has already received penalties for his actions."

"What does me not talking to him have to do with anything?" Mimi said.

"We doubt that you would have any desire to stay here if you eliminate contact with him."

"That's not true." Mimi said. These people really believed she had Stockholm Syndrome. She couldn't believe this.

"You have to cooperate with us if you wish to stay here." Shimo-sama stated.

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Fine, I won't talk to him. I'm telling you, it won't make a difference. Are we done here?"

"Speak to the elder with respect." One of the snow shinobi said.

"It's okay, don't get on her too much. She is not in her right state of mind."

Mimi groaned. She wasn't about to hear any more of this. They were making her out to be crazy. "I'm out of here." She said angrily, walking out of the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A couple of days later…_

"I'm sorry to have you come here on such short notice," Gaara said to the three shinobi standing in his office. "But I'm afraid to say that we might have some grave times coming soon, and most likely, we will need the assistance of the leaf village in the near future."

"What's going on?" Kiba asked.

"We have come across four scrolls that could be a threat to the world. We don't know the strength of what resides inside it, but it is said to be very dangerous and powerful. As of now, the scrolls are being watched by ANBU, however we are preparing and making extra precautions. The weather is already starting to cool. We have to keep an eye on these scrolls to prevent further damage. The person who resides inside it is said to cause eternal winter."

"How did you find these scrolls?" Shino asked.

"…Kabuto is the one who brought them here. Most likely he was tempted to find them because they were rumored to bring immortality, but right now he is injured and unconscious. We plan to question him once he stabilizes and wakes up. As of now, we have no idea how he obtained three out of the four scrolls. So far, it seems he's been showing improvement in the last couple of days so we'll be able to find out soon."

"Kabuto…" Naruto said angrily. "Leave it up to him to ruin everything. This is supposed to be a time of peace."

"We are just preparing for the worst. Hopefully we'll be able to deal with the issue before it gets out of hand." Gaara said. "You are dismissed for now."

The three started walking out the office, but Gaara called Naruto to tell him something.

"I forgot to say, I'm sorry for calling you here. I know Hinata is pregnant and needs your support…but if this turns out badly, your skill will be valued greatly."

"Don't worry about it, Gaara. You know I have your back! Hinata's fine. She's staying with her sister right now." Naruto said, giving one of his huge smiles. "Whatever happens, I know we can all handle it."

Gaara nodded. "Thank you, Naruto."

"That Shino guy is still a weirdo." Kankuro commented when Naruto left the office. Due to the current circumstances, the two brothers decided to put their differences aside despite the disagreement that occurred recently.

"I requested to the village elder that Himitsu stay here." Gaara said to Kankuro after an awkward silence, ignoring Kankuro's comment about Shino.

"Hn," Kankuro muttered.

"If they decide to have her stay, you are still not allowed to speak to her," Gaara continued. "You need to understand that her decisions were made when she was in a very vulnerable state."

"Whatever. I don't care." Kankuro said irritably. "They can do whatever they want."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kabuto was in a house that seemed oddly familiar to him. He heard screams in the distance…as he walked closer to where the noise was coming from; he ended up in a room, and saw…himself. But he was just a child. The child was standing there, watching shinobi do unspeakable things to two adults…his…parents?

"Mother, father…" Kabuto whispered to himself in shock as it finally registered to him what was going on.

But he couldn't interfere no matter how hard he tried to fight or scream. It was as if they couldn't see him or hear him. He couldn't touch them; they went right through him. He couldn't even comfort himself as a child, who was now crying in the corner of the room, helpless as he saw blood fly in every direction of the room while hearing the screams and utter horror of the pain and torture that his parents were going through. When the screams stopped, a familiar figure appeared in the room…the Queen.

"That's enough, let's go. We have this village now." She said to the shinobi who had just tortured his parents to death.

"And what of the child?"

"Don't worry, I'll deal with him." The Queen said. "Go gather the other villagers."

"Yes, your majesty." They said, leaving the home.

The Queen walked to the boy, who tried to cower in the corner more than he already was as she got closer to him.

"Don't be scared, child. I won't kill you." She said to him. "I will blur your eyesight so you won't see violence anymore, and erase your memory of this tragic incident. If you ever encounter me again, I'll remind you that I spared your life, and I expect that you will repay me for my favor." she said to the boy, before rendering him unconscious.

Then the home was gone. Everything was gone, and he was just standing in white nothingness. He didn't know what to think. All these years, he wanted to find out who he was, where he came from…and he finally got what he wanted. Now he didn't know if he even wanted to remember in the first place.

"No need to look so shocked. There's nothing you can do about it now."

Kabuto looked up to see this evil queen. He couldn't imagine someone could ever repulse and disgust him so much. He couldn't imagine having this much hatred for one individual. If he could, he would make her suffer the same fate that she made his parents go through.

"Where am I?"

"You're sleeping right now. Sorry I had to communicate to you in this manner, but the scrolls I'm residing in are being guarded, and I don't want to make such a show just yet." The queen said unapologetically.

"You knew who I was when I summoned you!" Kabuto said. "You caused the death of my parents!"

"Is me wiping your memory away not enough? I did you that favor. We were fated to meet again, I assume. Now it's your time to repay me."

"I freed you from your torment. I've already repaid you. And what if you're being deceptive? Those could have been false memories."

"Oh, sweetheart, those weren't false memories. You think those memories were false? Well, I have news for you. How are you able to understand my dialect so easily? I speak to you in a northern dialect that people of the south have trouble understanding. You spoke to me with ease when you summoned me. Now don't fret so much. I'm trying to be nice. You don't have a choice anyway. I did you the favor and granted your memories back."

"Why did you do that to my parents?" Kabuto asked, with a slight tremor in his voice, realizing that she was right. He didn't notice that he didn't have an issue understanding what she was saying even if she spoke so differently. He was even responding to her in the dialect and he didn't even notice…it came so naturally to him. Is that where he came from? Was he from the Land of Snow?

"It was nothing personal, really," the queen said casually. "They just happened to live in the village I was trying to take over. Unfortunately, my conquest didn't go far. I was sealed away in those horrid scrolls soon after."

"So my parents died in vain." Kabuto said. "You're a monster."

"Don't act so grandiose. You were working for a mad scientist. Or did you forget? Your moral ground isn't any better than mine."

"I wouldn't have been working for him if you wouldn't have killed my parents!" He yelled.

The Queen rolled her eyes. "Enough with your nonsense. You can't predict what could have happened, and it's useless to dwell on that. Now listen to me. You're going to wake up soon. If you don't want to suffer the fate of your dear Lord Orochimaru, you'll do everything I say. I'm going to lay low for a while. I need you to address to me the weaknesses of the shinobi in this village. I want to take over this village without a struggle. Tell me their motives. When I feel I have enough information, is when I will be ready to make myself known."

"This village doesn't have many weaknesses. The shinobi here are very powerful."

"Hm. It seems I'll have to prepare for a fight, then. Very well then. I still want you to report to me their motives. I will lie dormant and reserve and build up my power. Then I shall be ready to freeze over the rest of the planet."

"And how will I be able to tell you what's going on if you're being guarded?"

"The same way I'm communicating with you now. Every time you fall asleep, I will be here. You see, that dagger I put inside of you has connected the both of us, even after I melt it away. I can live the world through you while I hide." The Queen said, almost dismissively. "You're waking up now. I expect that you do as I say. I can grant you the worst, realistic nightmares if you fail to obey me. I can see what goes on in your mind…your subconscious. I suggest you don't test me."

And in a snap, Kabuto jolted awake, breathing heavily in a cold sweat. He looked down at his abdomen, the ice dagger gone. There was no sign of it ever being there in the first place. Was it a genjutsu? It couldn't be…everything seemed in place, and he was able to spot if he was in a genjutsu fairly quickly.

Instantly, he looked around for his glasses, not content with looking at a blurry room. Next to his glasses was a cup with a jug of water. He immediately poured some in the cup and drank some.

A couple of minutes later, a medical nin walked in the room to check up on him.

"You're awake," he said. "How do you feel?"

Mentally? Probably anguish and complete discontent with himself and his current situation. He never felt so helpless. He didn't want to be associated with this woman who found a way to occupy his mind. "I'm okay…what happened to the dagger that was inside me?" Was all Kabuto ended up saying.

"It melted away soon after we brought you in here. We assessed you for any internal damage, but there doesn't seem to be any, so we were monitoring you and treating your hypothermia."

"I see…" Kabuto said. So the queen kept her word. But he still couldn't trust her. There was no knowing what else she had up her sleeve. Ever since she's come in contact with him she's surprised him with her capability. He had no doubts that she could have the world freeze over. But he was struggling between whether he should inform the Kazekage or keep it secret. If he told the Kazekage, he would risk a terrible fate, but there were chances of her being defeated. If he worked with her, he would probably see a future of being alive, but miserable, as he would have to be subservient to this queen for the rest of his life. Neither of those choices had very good outcomes. He would have to do what he was best at doing: double crossing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As nightfall started to come, Mimi walked along the dark roads of Suna, taking in the cool night. She noticed the weather was getting cooler during the day. It didn't bother her, but a part of her felt it wasn't really normal for a desert to be that cool during the day. Maybe it was just some type of anomaly. There have been pretty hot days in the Land of Snow, though they are very rare.

She decided to take a walk around since she was a bit bored back at her home. Temari and Shikamaru had moved out recently. Temari's issues with her brothers have calmed down, and they put their anger aside to support Temari, though they still weren't very happy with Shikamaru. Mimi was happy that they were able to work things out, though she had gotten used to them there, and felt a bit lonely now that they left. A part of her knew Temari and Shikamaru also left because they were probably requested to leave. A close connection with Temari meant that she could end up talking to Kankuro, and they weren't supposed to be speaking.

That didn't stop them, though. For the past couple of days, they've been meeting up in different places even though they weren't supposed to. It was an unspoken agreement. Some things just didn't need a reason. She enjoyed his company, and she didn't see the reason to stop speaking to him. Despite his impudence, he made her laugh and he was one of her favorite people to talk to when she looked past him making fun of her. They talked about anything. She felt like she could just be herself. With other people, she felt like she had to hold herself back. But Kankuro was down to earth. She liked that about him. He held a nonjudgmental attitude about a lot of things, and he didn't ostracize things he didn't understand.

They haven't seen each other today, though. And even though she was used to the solitude and preferred it most of the time, she missed his company. He wasn't draining. She wouldn't admit that to herself, though.

"It's getting late."

Mimi turned around to see the puppeteer dressed all in black, like always. She didn't think she would get to see him today, and felt a surge of happiness inside her.

"I know," Mimi said, smiling. "I like walking around at night."

"You shouldn't be walking around at night by yourself."

Mimi shrugged. "I guess you're right. But it's something I always did up north."

"That's dangerous."

"Cut me some slack. There wasn't much to do."

"This isn't the north."

He was right. Things were probably different here. Up north, it wasn't as densely populated. Less people meant fewer issues...well, most of the time. "I guess I got used to having people over," Mimi said. "Now that everyone left it's weird. So I decided to take a walk. And you're doing the same thing anyway."

"Do I really have to waste my time telling you how me walking around at this time of night is different than you doing it?" He said.

"I know, I know." Mimi said. There was no need for her to hear the she's-not-a-high-level-shinobi lecture. "But I'm not alone anymore. What are you doing wandering around here anyway?"

"Looking for you."

"Really?" Mimi said, looking up at him. It wasn't often that she felt…wanted.

"Being around a normal civilian can be a breath of fresh air, sometimes. I don't have many friends who aren't shinobi."

Mimi nodded. She guessed it got tiring dealing with…shinobi issues. It must get annoying dealing with all the violence and fighting and training…it was something Mimi could never do, and she never understood how her parents managed to deal with it. She didn't have the strength or the guts to do that type of stuff. It was really cool to watch from afar, though.

"Well, I feel special now," Mimi joked. "I'm like your escape."

"Don't flatter yourself, midget." He said, smiling down at her.

A cool breeze swept over them briefly, causing Mimi to shiver, who lacked a sweater or a jacket.

"Jeez, it's getting cold," Mimi said, feeling herself get goosebumps. "Is it just me, or has the weather been getting colder? It just seems out of the ordinary, even for the nighttime."

Kankuro stood quiet for a moment. She wouldn't know about what's been going on, would she? He doubted it. There have been other civilians complaining about the weather lately, too. But he couldn't disclose any information. It would cause a widespread panic that would be unnecessary and just cause more chaos than good. From his knowledge, no one would know about the scroll…or scrolls, for that matter.

"I guess so. It'll probably go away soon." Kankuro said dismissively. "I'm starving." He said, changing the subject. He didn't want to keep talking about it and end up giving a clue about something that she might pick up on.

"I can make you something to eat." Mimi suggested. Then she could have company over and not feel so lonely. It was getting cold outside anyway.

"No thanks, I should get going…"

"Aw, why not? You should come over." Mimi insisted.

"No, I'm good."

Mimi could smack him upside the head. He was just like Temari. An even more stubborn version of Temari. Luckily, she had a plan.

Mimi sighed heavily in mock disappointment. "Okay. I guess I'm just going to have to eat the hamburger steak I was planning to make all by myself…"

"…You know how to make that?" He said, eyeing her.

"Yes." She said in mock innocence. She knew she got him.

"…Okay, I'll go." Kankuro said eventually. He couldn't miss a good opportunity to eat his favorite food, especially ifsomeone was going to make it for him.

"Yay!" She said, grabbing his wrist to take him to her place.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"That was delicious," Kankuro said. "How did you know it was my favorite food?"

"It is?" Mimi said. "What a coincidence. That just happened to be what I was craving."

"You forget that you're a terrible liar. Stop playing stupid," he said. "I'm not that dumb. You're hanging out with Ryu too much."

"Okay, fine. Temari told me when we were exchanging recipes," Mimi said, laughing at his last comment. "And that's mean. Ryu isn't dumb. He's just…unique."

"Uniquely stupid." Kankuro mumbled.

"I don't think he's stupid, but I think he's funny." Mimi said.

"Why are you defending him? You like him or something?" He asked, looking up at her skeptically.

"Nothing more than a friend. He's a bit too…energetic for me." Mimi said, looking up as she was trying to find a word for Ryu's extremely extroverted personality. He was definitely one of a kind. That was for sure.

"What kind of guys do you like then?" Kankuro asked. He was curious. She probably didn't have very good taste in men based on what she told him about her ex.

Mimi stood quiet for a second before answering. "I...don't know. I never thought of that. I guess if I click with them and they're nice. But they're always nice in the beginning. What about you?" Mimi asked.

"I'm not gay. I'm not interested in dating guys."

"I meant girls. Can you stop being a smartass for one second?" Mimi said annoyed, but obviously amused.

He smirked. "I like exotic women. They're fun to look at and play with."

"You must be quite the charmer," Mimi said dully, raising an eyebrow.

"You have no idea." He said smugly.

"I'm sorry I asked." Mimi said, standing up. She didn't want to hear any more details. She already had unsightly images popping up in her head. "I'm going to make some tea," she said, walking off.

Mimi rolled her eyes as she prepared the tea. She really could not believe someone could be so outwardly arrogant and rude most of the time. She would tell herself that she didn't mind it because she knew there was a kind side to him despite his occasional insolence—he did save her life and offered her a place to go—but she had to admit he was kind of appealing as well. She wouldn't say that to anyone though.

Kankuro snickered as he watched her walk off. He noticed she always wore baggy clothes, and it made it hard to tell what her body looked like under all the clothes since she almost never showed her skin. He wondered how she would look if she would take the baggy clothes off. She didn't look very curvy, but she probably looks fine naked based on the little he did see of her the other day at the bar…it was different than what he was used to, but he liked different. As she came back from the kitchen to serve the tea, he noticed what he was actually thinking about, and put the thoughts away in a part of his mind he doesn't have any interest in remembering. But as she sat down his eyes wandered down to her brown baggy shirt, observing how her breasts barely poked through.

"Here," he heard Mimi say.

"Huh?" He said, looking up at her.

"Your tea."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks, midget."

Mimi sighed, shaking her head. "I'm going to start thinking of a nickname to give you if you keep calling me that."

"Like what?"

"Um…I don't know. Maybe something related to your makeup." Mimi teased.

"Go ahead. It's not the first time I've heard those jokes." Kankuro said. "I can take off my war paint. You can't grow."

Mimi laughed. "I kid. I like your war paint. It looks cool."

"…Really?" Kankuro asked. He didn't hear that often.

"Yes. I was never good at that type of stuff," Mimi said, leaning closer to him, examining his war paint. "You changed it! I never noticed."

"Uh…yeah," he said, feeling awkward at the distance between them as her eyes scanned over his face. He liked her eyes…she was pretty.

Mimi distanced herself when she saw he looked uncomfortable.

"I think I should get going," Kankuro said quickly, leaving her apartment hastily.

Mimi blinked in confusion. What was up with him?

Kankuro rushed home, thinking about the argument that he had with Gaara the other day. He wasn't attracted to Mimi. He didn't like her when they first met. So that wouldn't change all of a sudden. Gaara was just planting thoughts in his head, to try and get her to leave…but it really got him thinking about why he didn't want her to leave.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kabuto stabilized fairly quickly, and was discharged from the hospital a couple of days after the medical nin were confident that he was back to full health. Now, he was stuck in an interrogation room, waiting to be questioned. He was sitting at a desk, with two shinobi, a man and a woman, staring at him as if that would make him confess anything. He decided the best thing would be to be as cooperative as possible without giving too much away. If they saw he was cooperating, he might be able to find out what their motives are so he would be able to tell the queen just enough so she won't try and kill him…but he won't tell her everything, of course. He didn't want her to actually be successful in her plan. The thought of living in a world below freezing for the rest of eternity serving an evil queen was terrible, even for him.

Even though the Queen was able to get in his head, she seemed to have some limitations, being that she needed him to spy on them for her. Just her luck, being a spy was his specialty. And it would work out to his advantage if he played his cards right. Adjusting his glasses, he waited for the sand shinobi to talk, preparing himself for what they would ask of him.

"How did you get ahold of these scrolls?" One of the shinobi asked.

"I found out where they were hidden and stole them," Kabuto said.

"How did you find out about them?"

"If you're wondering how I found out about their existence in the first place, there are legends that get passed around through the land. There's always some truth to myths that get passed around. So I went in search for them based off of what the legends said."

"Do you expect us to believe that their locations will get disclosed so easily?" The female shinobi asked.

"Well, I did say I made some friends," Kabuto answered.

"You spied on them." The man said bluntly.

"If that's what you want to call it," he snickered.

"What happened when you obtained all the scrolls?" The woman asked.

Kabuto slightly cringed as he remembered the scream he heard once all the scrolls were activated. "I don't know."

"Something happened." The male said, noticing the look on his face.

There was stillness for a moment, and then the female shinobi broke the silence.

"We want to get this over with as quickly as you do," she said. "If you tell us what happened, we won't hold it against you. Our goal here is not to cause you any inconvenience. We want to ensure the safety of everyone. "

Kabuto thought about it for a minute, and figured that there would be no harm if he gave them the information they needed. It could give clues as how to eradicate the Queen. Kabuto then told them about what happened when he put the scrolls together, but he left out the parts about what happened to Orochimaru. He could deal with that part on his own, and they didn't need to know that he was still alive, especially in his weakened state. He wasn't even sure about his status or whereabouts at the moment. If what the Queen told him was true, the sand shinobi wouldn't be able to help him, even if they wanted to, which they probably wouldn't due to his infamy. And he didn't tell them about the communication he had with the queen, obviously, but he told them they had to figure something out quick. He knew she would be getting stronger as time went on, and they had no time to waste. The Land of Earth was already frozen over. It wouldn't be long for the Land of Wind to suffer the same fate.

Both of the investigators nodded as he told them how he got here with the scrolls, and how he ended up with a dagger of ice through his abdomen.

"We thank you for your cooperation," The female shinobi said, "but we have one more question. When did you find out about these scrolls, and how to activate them?"

"Fairly recently," Kabuto said. "It didn't take very long for me to obtain all four scrolls."

"Okay," she said. "We're done here."

After the interrogation was over, they took Kabuto and locked him away in a prison. They had informed him that he would have to stay here until further notice. This didn't surprise him. He went to lie down on the bed, getting lost in his own thoughts.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The two shinobi reported the interrogation to Gaara, who looked sullen. It wasn't very often that there was a situation at hand that he didn't know what to do. His first thought was to destroy the scrolls, but he wasn't sure what would happen if the scrolls were to get destroyed. It could either exacerbate the situation or completely eradicate it. At this point, this would be an unnecessary risk. But the thought of waiting for something to happen seemed worse.

"I also have an important piece of information regarding Kabuto," the female interrogator added. "Kabuto stated that he learned of all this fairly recently. He looked like he was being truthful about that. From the way he described how he summoned all the scrolls after putting them together, it seems to be that someone would have to know a very advanced summoning jutsu to be able to do this."

"What is your point?" Gaara asked.

"To have learned a jutsu like that, he would have needed assistance. There was no way he could have elaborated all of this by himself."

"That would mean that the person helping him would have to know a vast knowledge of jutsus." The male shinobi added.

"Exactly." The female shinobi said. "And there is one person he's known to be associated with who has a vast knowledge of ninjutsu."

"Are you implying that Orochimaru had something to do with this?" Gaara asked. "He's been dead for some time now."

"From our knowledge, he's been dead," the male shinobi said. "We're not specifying that he's still alive for a fact, but it's something that we have to consider."

"If this is the case, then we have to question him about who else might have been included in obtaining the scrolls. If there is someone else involved, there has been no clue of their presence, so this could turn out dangerously. It means he has something else planned. We cannot let this happen." Gaara said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kabuto was in a familiar void, where everything was white. He seemed to be floating in nothingness…and then he saw someone not far up ahead in the distance, and the person was getting closer. The figure was familiar to him…it was the queen. But there was something different about her. As she eventually stood about a foot away from him, he noticed her blue tint was gone, and she lacked the evil, sadistic glare that was always constant in her eyes. Her eyes were a bold violet, instead of the cold, icy dark blue that the evil queen usually had.

"Kabuto…" the Queen said. "We don't have much time…please listen to me…"

This wasn't the queen he was used to communicating with. What happened to her?

"I want to apologize for the suffering my mistakes have caused you. I am Queen Hokkyo, and I want to help you."

"You're acting different," Kabuto said to her.

"That's because that queen is not me. She is my evil counterpart. She does not belong in your world. You are my only hope to fix this."

"Huh?" Kabuto said, confused.

"Let me explain," The queen said calmly. "A long time ago, I ruled a small, prosperous village up north. I met the love of my life…we were supposed to get married. I wanted to make him king, and we were to look over our village in happiness and harmony."

The Queen then looked down in sadness.

"He owned a ship…he was a sailor who traded often with other lands. He was to go on one last trip before he was to settle down in my land, but he never returned. Over time, I heard his ship had gotten lost at sea, never to return. But we had promised that we would find each other, no matter what. I made a mistake. I was tempted by dark magic. I was promised it would bring him back to me. I wanted to at least speak to him one last time. I lacked the closure that I longed for with him.

"But I was deceived. Instead of bringing him back to me, I opened a portal to the underworld using a mirror. It caused me to switch with what I thought was my reflection. I got caught in this dark world…my counterpart roaming free in your world. You must bring her back where she belongs. She will cause mass destruction."

"How will I be able to do that?" Kabuto asked. "There's no way I can achieve that on my own."

"There is hope," The queen said. "I am stuck in the underworld, but I see what the queen has done. I was thankful she was locked away, and that is the only reason why I have not lost hope…I see the good in you. I see your strength. I know you can do this. I have information that can help you. Your assistance will be forever appreciated. You will be seen as a hero in my village."

"What is it?" Kabuto asked.

"I…was able to get in contact with my sailor soon after I got locked away in this world briefly a long time ago. He told me his ship is cursed…but two sand shinobi were destined to find his lost ship and bring him back home after all these years. It was a vision he told me he kept on having after wandering aimlessly at sea for so long. I have a feeling that their return should be very soon…for he told me if I am able to reach out into the world of light again, then they have found him. If they were to break the curse, he'll be able to give them a satchel of rare seeds he had obtained during his journeys that will reopen the portal temporarily and bring me back where I belong. Me and my counterpart cannot exist on the same plane. If I return, she will disappear, going back where she originally came from. It is the only way we can achieve this. Are you brave enough to look for me in the underworld and bring me through the portal?"

Kabuto thought about it for a moment. If he were to do this…he would have a purpose. And he would be a hero. But if he failed…he would get locked away in the underworld too.

"I understand your concern," the queen told him apologetically. "I'm sorry to put this on you, but you are my last option. Please consider the consequences."

Kabuto didn't have a choice. If he was going to risk dying, at least he would have died attempting to do something for a good purpose. He nodded. "I'll do it."

The queen smiled. "Thank you, Kabuto…I am trapped at a large mountain in the horizon that you won't miss once you get in the underworld. Release me from there, and we shall be able to return. Be careful, there will be many dangerous monsters on your journey. I must go now…I sense her presence…"

And in a moment, the queen faded away.

**A/N: Sorry it took me longer than expected to put this chapter up. Attempting to study for my boards and the holidays and fighting depressive episodes and therapy…things have been a tad bit chaotic, but here it is, lol. I feel like this story unfolded in a way I didn't expect and now I opened up Pandora's box! Oh well, the best I'm going to have to do is rock with it and see where it goes. I already have ideas for the next chapter, including Shikamaru and Temari stuff, so that's good news. Until next time ;D**


	9. Frozen

**A/N: =] Well, here it is…Oh! I also want to thank you guys for following and favoriting my story! You're all awesome ;D I know my writing isn't perfect so I'm glad you're all giving me a chance. This chapter is a bit longer than the usual ones, so I hope you enjoy it.**

There was a faint wind brushing over his face as he felt soft, cold droplets dissolving as they touched his skin. Then everything started coming back into focus…but where was he? Rubbing his eyes, he sat up from the ground he was on, shaking his head into focus. He noticed he was lying in sand…but as he looked up, the sky was cloudy and grey; with…_snow falling on the ground?_

"Kanjo, wake up! Check this out! I can't believe this…" Rojikku said to Kanjo, shaking him awake.

"Hm? Wha…what happened?" Kanjo said, struggling to wake up. "Where are we?"

"We're near Suna…" Rojikku said, looking ahead to see the hidden village in the distance.

"Whoa, that's creepy, dude. How the hell did we get here?" Kanjo said nervously, looking at him. "And why is it snowing?"

Rojikku looked back at him as they both tried to remember their ordeal. It was all fuzzy.

"Was it a genjutsu?" Rojikku asked rhetorically.

"Probably…" Kanjo said, standing up. "We're gonna have to tell the Kazekage why we took so long on our mission. The whole ordeal after the mission was definitely out of the ordinary."

"You're telling me…" Rojikku said. "But that still doesn't explain why it's snowing in the desert."

"Maybe we're still stuck in the genjutsu."

"I don't know," Rojikku said. "For some reason this all seems way too real. We would have broken through the genjutsu already."

"…Let's just go," Kanjo said, starting to walk toward the sand village in the distance. "We'll figure it out soon enough."

"Hey, you dropped something," Rojikku said, picking up what fell out of his pocket as he stood up.

"What's this?" Kanjo said, looking in the small sack that he dropped.

Inside were…seeds. And then that's when it all came back to them.

"No way…" Kanjo said. "It really did happen…we have to bring these to the Kazekage!"

"That's why it's snowing." Rojikku said seriously. "The Captain was right. We need to hurry. The snow looks like it just started; I don't see any snow sticking on the ground. If we hurry now, we might be able to make it before things get worse."

Kanjo put the seed satchel back in his pocket, rushing towards Suna, with Rojikku following closely behind.

_Flashback…_

"That mission wasn't so bad," Kanjo said, walking on the ship casually, proud that the mission was a success.

"I didn't expect to bump into other shinobi though. That's probably why the Kazekage assigned us. He probably saw it as a possibility."

"The most important part is that the politician we were escorting arrived in one piece." Kanjo affirmed.

"In retrospect, it doesn't surprise me that he had assassins after him. He came off as a bit shady."

"Well his meeting in that city seemed to turn out well, so at least they didn't bite his head off."

"That would have been a mission failed…completely."

"Hmph, we never fail missions." Kanjo said confidently as the boat started to set sail.

After a couple of hours, Rojikku was bent over the edge of the boat, which was expected.

"Ugh, I hope this boat ride ends soon," He said when he got the chance to stand back up.

"I doubt it, buddy." Kanjo said.

As the boat kept sailing, the winds kept getting stronger, and colder. Eventually it started to rain heavily, the waves crashing around the boat stronger and stronger.

"This weather's insane! It came out of nowhere!" One of the sailors of the ship said as the ship bobbed up and down roughly as the weather got increasingly worse.

After a giant wave crashed against the ship, the sailors heard a loud crack.

"Everybody, on the lifeboats! It's going to sink!" Another sailor called.

Luckily, there weren't many sailors on the ship, and there were enough lifeboats for everyone as they saw the ship get smothered by the waves, eventually disappearing in sight as it slowly descended down to the unknown depths of the ocean. Kanjo and Rojikku had a lifeboat to themselves, and they struggled against the tumultuous waves to try and keep track of the other sailors. Unfortunately, all they saw was a large sea in all directions, with no one else in sight.

"We've got to find a way to land!" Kanjo yelled as he saw the largest wave come toward their way.

The skies blackened, the rain increasing heavily, the winds becoming so strong they had to yell loudly to be able to hear each other even though they were right next to each other.

"I think we're stuck in a hurricaine!" Rojikku yelled to Kanjo.

"Oh no!" Kanjo yelled as the large wave overpowered them and the lifeboat they were on.

The last thing they remembered was struggling to swim to the surface as the waves pushed them in all directions, and eventually exhaustion gave in, and they passed out.

Rojikku and Kanjo woke up on a solid, wooden floor that was moving up and down.

"Where are we?" Rojikku asked as they both sat up.

"We're on a ship…" Kanjo said, looking around.

"But…how?"

"You're finally up," A raspy voice said.

Both of the sand shinobi turned around to see a man with a long, messy black beard, a long, worn brown jacket, and black rubber boots.

"Who are you?" Kanjo said, standing up abruptly, looking around him. Everything surrounding the ship he was on wasn't what he expected. Instead of endless blue, there was a white smoky haze that was ubiquitous everywhere, feeling a sense of timelessness, but he still felt the boat saling, as if it had a specific location.

"I'm the captain of this ship." The man said matter-of-factly.

"How did we end up here?" Rojikku asked.

"You came in through the haze, just like the rest of us," The captain said, as other sailors started crowding around them as they realized there were new people that were added to their crew.

"What?" Rojikku said, confused. "How do we get out of here?"

"No idea," The captain said apologetically. "We got lost at sea, and ended up in this haze. We've lost track of how much time has passed. There was an urban legend that ships got lost a lot around this area of the sea, but we didn't believe it. I regret not heeding the warning that the civilians gave us…someone is waiting for me back home. She was in trouble the last time I had contact with her. I reckon a long time has passed since then. I hope she's okay."

"What…how are you guys even still alive?" Rojikku asked, not liking where this story was going.

One of the sailors shrugged. "Ever since we've been here we haven't had the need for food or anything. It's like we're stuck in time or something."

"You've got to be kidding me…" Rojikku said. "I can't believe this! Were we the only ones who ended up here?"

"From what we've seen," the captain said. "Welcome to the crew, you'll get used to it."

"Wait a god damn second," Kanjo said angrily. "You're telling me you have no idea how to get out of this? I'll be damned if I just stay like this for the rest of my life! This is unbelievable!"

"It's the stage of denial," one of the sailors whispered to the other sailors.

"I'm assuming this has happened before," Rojikku said, overhearing the sailor.

"Yeah, many times," the captain said. "We're all here for each other. It's how we've been able to tolerate this for so long. We've had guys come and go."

"Go where?" Rojikku asked. "I thought we were trapped in this."

"The ones who get tired of this…they jump off the ship…sometimes to end the misery…sometimes to try and figure out a way out past the mist. None of them have ever returned. The last thing we hear from them are screams…I don't suggest jumping overboard. That's what it wants."

"This is like a horror novel," Kanjo said worriedly.

"Wait, captain, didn't you say that you kept having visions of two guys every time you stared into the mist for too long? Maybe they're the ones who'll get us out of here!" One of the sailors said.

"I doubt that," the captain said. "We've had guys come in in groups of two before. It never ended well. I just say that in hopes that it means something, but there's no progress. It's all an illusion. We're cursed forever."

"Don't talk like that," Kanjo said defiantly. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not just gonna sit here and do nothing. I'm gonna find a way to get out of this shit. Fuck this curse!"

Rojikku didn't like the look that the sailors had on their faces. It was a look of…pity. Rojikku didn't want to say anything to Kanjo. He didn't want to ruin his spirits. But it didn't seem like there was any way to get out of this boat. Rojikku figured that it was best to accept this fate now. But he figured if he was going to be on this boat for eternity, it wouldn't hurt in observing and figuring out ways to get out of here, even if it may seem futile.

But as time….or timelessness dragged on, it didn't seem like there were any clues of getting off this ship. Kanjo and Rojikku ended up being one of the members of the crew, doing things to pass the time, like telling stories of the life before this mist, playing stupid word games…and attempting to sleep, even though there was no need, apparently.

As hopelessness started to torture the two shinobis' thoughts, they started hearing a voice in their head, telling them to jump overboard.

_Jump…you'll find peace…you'll finally get out of here…_it would say. It would keep on repeating and repeating and the voice would eventually go away if they ignored it long enough. But it would always come back. This was normal as the rest of the crew told them. But they insisted not to give in. This was what the mist…the curse…wanted. They said jumping overboard could be a fate worse than death. It wasn't worth the risk.

But it got more tempting as timelessness started to torture them. One of the guys among them eventually jumped. Even when Kanjo and Rojikku first got stuck on the ship, the guy who jumped over always had an air of melancholy about him. The crew figured he would eventually give in. But that's when Rojikku and Kanjo first heard the scream that the crew told them about when someone would jump. It was the scream that kept everyone on board and gave them the will to stay, and gave them hope that one day, they would eventually get out of here.

It really did get Rojikku curious what on earth was beyond the haze that he had gotten used to seeing constantly. It was to the point where life before getting stuck here seemed fuzzy…so long ago. Eventually, Kanjo started to get agitated, talking aggressively to the other sailors, almost getting in a physical altercation with one of them. Rojikku stopped it before it escalated; insisting that fighting wasn't going to help the situation. The captain said that some fights have gotten to the point where people have killed each other, but they had learned to grow beyond that. The bodies were decomposed on the bottom of the ship, but their souls still stayed trapped on the ship. Sometimes they would even see ghosts of the ones that died on the ship. No one liked going downstairs, from all the paranormal activity that went on from the ghosts of the sailors that passed on without falling in the grasp of the fog. Death wasn't the escape, and all they had was each other, after all.

But the timelessness teased them constantly, almost inviting them into the mystery of the eternal haze that surrounded them.

"What the hell do you want from us?!" Kanjo yelled at the mist in frustration as if it were going to answer back. "I'll make a deal…"

"Kanjo, you sound ridiculous," Rojikku said. "You're not speaking to anything!"

"Shut up! I'm sick of this shit, I wanna get out of here!" Kanjo yelled. "If this stupid curse is so badass, then why haven't we jumped yet? It's not so tough now, is it? I want a deal. Give us one hint! Just one! And I'll try to figure out how to get out of here…if I can't, then I'll jump overboard!"

Rojikku shook his head, more out of feeling bad for his friend. He was sure he was going to go mental soon.

But there was a loud, deep evil laugh that came from all around them, as if it were the haze itself. It echoed, and the feeling sent goose bumps down Rojikku's spine. It was one of the most unsettling laughs he's ever heard.

"Great, now you've gotten it mad!" One of the sailors said. "We're definitely gonners now!"

But everything was quiet, and back to normal.

Then there was a soft "thump" on the floor, and Rojikku picked up what was a thickly folded piece of paper.

"Holy shit, it was crazy enough to work," The captain said, rushing toward Rojikku. "Open it!"

"What if it's a trap?" Rojikku said.

"Open the damn thing. At this point we don't have much to lose," Kanjo said, grabbing the paper and unfolding it impatiently.

But their discouragement came as quickly as their hope left.

"It's just a bunch of swiggly lines," One of the sailors said as he took a look at the paper that landed in the ship from the haze.

"Well, we're fucked, and now we got the thing mad," the sailor said, glaring at Kanjo. "Way to go, asshole."

"Hey, at least I fucking tried! I got something out of this shit! What the hell have you accomplished this whole time besides sitting on your ass in here?" Kanjo retorted aggressively.

"That's enough, Kanjo." Rojikku said, looking at the paper. "I have a feeling this could mean something. I just need to think for a while what this could mean."

"Really? Because it looks like gibberish to me." The sailor said.

"Well, it's all we've got, so we might as well work with it." The captain said. "I have a feeling maybe you guys are gonna be the ones to get us outta here. This is the first time this has happened."

But no matter how long Rojikku or anyone else stared at the old, worn paper; no one could fathom what the scrawls could mean. The only thing that started happening shortly after the discovery of the paper was a high pitched whirring sound, which was starting to annoy everyone. At first, no one thought much of it since the sound was originating from the bottom of the ship where the ghosts of the sailors had passed were located, but it ended up continuing endlessly, the sound seemingly getting louder and louder the longer they tried to ignore it.

"Well, who's gonna check what the hell it is?" One of the sailors said, looking down at the entrance to the bottom of the ship when the crew came down to the conclusion that it wasn't going to stop unless someone figured out what on earth the sound was.

"I'm not doing it," another sailor said, looking intimidated.

Eventually, all the sailors looked towards their captain, hoping his courage would ensue at this dire moment.

"You can't back out on us now, Captain," one of the sailors said.

The Captain stood quiet, gulping loudly. He told himself there wasn't much he could lose, and if the way to getting out the ship was to go down to the bottom of the heavily haunted ship, he was going to have to do it for himself, his crew…and his queen.

"Alright, I'll do it," the Captain said, standing up straight, trying to be ready for whatever awaited him.

"We'll go with you," Rojikku said, turning to Kanjo.

"Huh?! Why're you looking at me?" Kanjo said glaring at Rojikku for volunteering him.

"You were the one that said you were going to find a way out of here, weren't you?" Rojikku taunted. "Unless you're scared."

He knew his friend so well. Kanjo was too proud to back down a challenge, no matter how grave the situation.

"I'm not scared," Kanjo denied, walking past the captain, next to the entrance of the bottom of the ship. "I'll be the first to go in."

And Kanjo bravely, and rashly, entered inside the ship, only to hear a petrifying screech once he entered. But the whirring sound was even louder than before, and even though Kanjo was tempted to stay frozen exactly where he was, he turned back to the Captain and Rojikku.

"Come on," he said, walking inside.

The ship smelled like death, mold, and decay, but that was expected. The three men covered their nose to try and shield the putrid smell that surrounded everything. At this point, the high pitched sound was overwhelming, and they felt like it could split their brains in two.

"We have to find a light source in here," Rojikku struggled to say, as it was pitch black down there.

The captain felt around for a light source, since he knew how to maneuver around the ship the best. But when the light turned on, they didn't expect to see what they saw.

It took all the power that Kanjo had not to turn around and run back where he came from. Even then, they wouldn't be able to leave. The door to the entrance closed and slammed by itself, locking them inside.

In front of them was a man, who had half of his face bludgeoned and was almost unrecognizable.

"_GET ME OOOOOUUUUUUTTTT!" _the bludgeoned man screeched, tossing all sorts of objects everywhere around the bottom of the boat, including the three men.

They all screamed when they felt themselves being hurled by an unknown source against the walls.

Rojikku and Kanjo recovered quickly from the inhuman strength that threw them, but the captain was pinned against the wall by what appeared to be absolutely nothing. The bludgeoned man was nowhere to be seen.

"F-find…out…what the sound issss…" The captain struggled to say, as it looked like he was being choked. There were finger marks that were starting to form around his neck.

Rojikku rushed to find out where the source of the sound was coming from, while Kanjo tried to get the Captain off the wall.

As Rojikku walked towards a clothed skeleton, the light that the captain turned on started flickering uncontrollably.

"Dammit," Rojikku said, trying to find his way toward the skeleton.

The ship started to sway to and fro, causing Rojikku to lose balance.

"You have to hurry up, Rojikku! The Captain's passing out!" Kanjo called.

"I'm trying!" Rojikku said, finally able to approach the dead body that decomposed so long ago. He dug in the pockets of the clothed skeleton, coughing and doing his best not to hurl as the smell and feel of the clothing was the most disgusting thing he's ever had to come in contact with.

Rojikku shoved his hand in the pocket of the dead body, as he felt something vibrating quickly there, and the whirring sound was so loud at this point he would have preferred death over hearing it anymore as it felt like his ears started to bleed from the torture it was causing him.

Once he removed what was in the corpse's pocket, the skeleton automatically sat up, facing Rojikku, worms, maggots, and roaches crawling all over its face.

"That's mine!" It said, laughing maniacally as the lights turned off completely, the whirring sound getting so unbearable all three men cried out in pain and sheer terror as horrid images of the worst demons one can think of manifested, even though it was dark. Rojikku heard the captain coughing and gasping for air, which meant that he was out of the grip of whatever was holding him.

With the demons that teased them endlessly, they saw images of what could be all of the universe's horrors that ever existed, torturing their soul and their very existence. The images they saw in the pitch black were images that no human being ever wished to see. The more they begged for the images of sin and torture to stop, the worse they got, and they tried everything, even closing their eyes, but the images grew ever stronger and more detailed if they dared close their eyes. Eventually they lost touch with what was real and what were illusions as they lost track of how long they stood in the bottom of that boat, seemingly like an eternity passing and coming as the depths of hell and back seemed to permeate through them.

And then as if it all lasted but only one second, the images ceased, the bottom of the boat going back to normal as the light turned back on, as if nothing had went on in the boat in the first place.

The three men looked at each other, questioning their reality, and themselves, as if anything that happened was even real. After a couple of minutes, it sunk in what they were down here for, and the eerie silence reminded them that the whirring stopped, and they remembered what they came to the bottom of the boat for.

In Rojikku's right hand, he noticed he still was holding on to what had been making the sound, clutching it tightly as the images of all his fears had still been ingrained into his memory. And as he looked down, he saw it was…a compass.

"All of that…for this?" Rojikku asked, looking down at the normal compass that stopped moving. He assumed the sound was it spinning so rapidly he was surprised it didn't self-destruct.

"It has to mean something," Kanjo said.

The door opened, slightly ajar, as if the boat was telling them their suffering was almost over.

"Let's get outta here," the captain said, finally feeling a glimmer of hope even after all the images he had endured, wanting to gauge his eyes and ears out, and lose all his senses for the things he felt could have been nothing worse than the deepest pits of hell and horror.

But the three men had an understanding of each other that they never felt they would ever have with anyone else in their lives as they walked back up to the top of the ship. What they had to endure was a curse…but also a blessing. There was absolutely nothing that could possibly scare them in life ever again…not after what they were put to endure just for the possible escape of getting out of this endless hazy fog that kept them here for so long.

"That was fast," One of the sailors said as they all greeted the three men who had the courage to get to the bottom of what was going on.

"…How much time passed?" Rojikku asked, turning to the sailor who made the comment.

"…Didn't seem longer than a couple of minutes." The sailor said. "But boy, were we worried! You guys were screaming as if you've never been tortured in your lives!"

"….You have no idea." Kanjo said, almost drained from all the suffering that he had to endure in what felt like an eternity, but to his knowledge, was only a couple of minutes. He would never, ever be the same again. But this made him stronger, much stronger, and gave him an enlightenment he thought he would never get. It made him realize, that if he were to escape this mist alive, it cost him a great price. Ignorance truly is bliss, and only Rojikku would ever be able to even fathom the newfound wisdom that forever changed him.

Then the whirring started again, but it wasn't loud, and torturous like the sound it was making when it was at the bottom of the ship. Rojikku looked at the compass, trying to find out why it had started spinning again.

"Give me the paper," Rojikku said.

And then it clicked.

The paper wasn't a bunch of swiggly lines…they were directions in the direction to sail the ship…that'll get them out of here. He notice the compass was spinning in the same direction that the lines on the paper were mapped out…north-up; east-right; west-left; and it seemed like the ship would be sailing aimlessly, for the lines overlapped, went backwards, and back to square one…but it would get them out eventually, if they followed these directions to the end.

Rojikku explained this to the rest of the crew, and as excited as they were to finally figure this out, the captain made one good point.

"Even though this boat is moving, in reality, there's no wind for it to change directions. So even if we have the directions to get out of here, there's no wind for us to be able to move the ship. It was all a trap."

But Rojikku smiled. "We do have wind."

"How?" The captain asked.

Rojikku smirked, looking at Kanjo, and Kanjo already knew what to do. "Get this ship ready, captain. You're finally getting out of here."

The captain, a confused look on his face, nodded, taking his directions skeptically.

And then he found out why, as Kanjo created wind, moving the ship as desired.

"It was you guys, you were really destined to get us out…" The captain said in awe.

"I told you I get things done when I put my mind to something. I was _not_ planning on staying here forever, and I was _not_ planning on losing this bet and jumping in the fog." Kanjo said proudly.

But it was a long journey as the ship had to take a seemingly directionless adventure through a mist that seemed to give no hope of seeing anything new. Halfway through the journey, Kanjo was growing weary, and he started to breath heavily.

"Your chakra is low," Rojikku stated.

"I have to keep going, I can't stop now," Kanjo said, determined. "If we stop, we could get lost and be stuck in here."

"You can't overwork yourself," Rojikku said.

"I have to do this…help me." Kanjo said, turning to Rojikku.

Rojikku nodded, giving him his chakra reserves, eventually pushing them to the end of their journey. And as if all hope had returned, the crew cheered as they saw a bright light waiting ahead of them.

"We did it…we did it…" The captain said. "You guys did it!"

And as the boat got smothered by a holy light, they found out they were back in the ocean again, the daylight almost blinding their eyes as they took in all the blue that surrounded them. The crew never thought they would be so happy to see the sun again.

Rojikku and Kanjo noticed the crew looked happier, but had aged. They must have been stuck in timelessness for a long time. Getting out of the fog, they must have been brought back to their respective ages as the curse was broken, never to torture another soul again.

The captain walked toward Rojikku and Kanjo, having an aura of thankfulness.

"I want to thank you for helping me and my crew. It was just as my visions showed me…and for that, I must give this to you," he said, lending them a satchel. "Bring this to your home and give it to your leader. By the time you get there, he'll know what to do with it, trust me."

Kanjo took the bag, looking inside. "They're just seeds," he said, confused and unimpressed.

"Don't let appearances deceive you. Those were seeds that were very hard to obtain. I searched and traveled the world to find those seeds, and I finally found a merchant who was going to trade them with me for all the gold and jewels I owned. It was my last voyage before I was going to settle down."

"Well, what do they do?" Rojikku asked.

"Those seeds can bring you anywhere on the planet in a second…anywhere you choose! They're very hard to find, because the poison fruit it comes from is an endangered species. But you two deserve to use some of them. Take one out, and toss it in the air. It'll take you to the location you have in mind. I wanted to give it to my queen as a gift, but I feel they're no longer needed after all this time.

"I can't take you home. I'm headed north, in hopes of reuniting with my true love. I'm going to wait for her. I know in my heart that I will see her again, but I need to make sure everything is right in our village for her return. I'll never forget you guys. I'm from the Land of snow, in the main city on the island that is closest to the North Pole. You're always welcome. I'll inform the queen of your heroic act."

The Captain took a seed out of the satchel, tossing it in the air, and a small portal opened, as if creating a mini wormhole in the universe.

"Goodbye, friends," the captain said, waving. "Go home, you don't have much time to lose. I think many people were awaiting your return a long time ago."

And that's when Rojikku and Kanjo realized they had no idea how much time had passed by since they got stuck on the ship. They figured not that long since they had not aged drastically like the rest of the crew, but they were desperate to go back to Suna. They both nodded, and bid the crew and the captain farewell. They jumped into the portal, traveling in a wormhole through space-time to greet their friends and family back home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kabuto woke up in a cold sweat again; remembering what the evil queen had told him after the real queen disappeared.

"I know she was here," the evil queen told Kabuto, not happy with the interaction. "That rat was able to get through to you, unfortunately. Don't listen to a word she says. Nothing she says will work."

"I don't believe that." Kabuto said defiantly.

"Are you going to dare defy me?!" The Queen said angrily. "You better remember the deal we made. Don't tell anyone a thing." She said, threateningly.

There was only one reason why she was so angry right now…and that was because she knew that if the plan worked, she would be tossed back in the underworld where she belonged. The real queen was being truthful, and she knew that. Kabuto smirked, and the evil queen didn't like the look on Kabuto's face.

"So this is how you betray me after all I've done for you…" the queen said, voice quivering. "I favored you. I spared your life over all the ones I've taken away…and yet this is how you repay me."

At this point, Kabuto didn't really give a shit about her feigned feelings. She was a manipulative bitch, and he wasn't going to be manipulated to work for anyone anymore. He'll take his chances.

"Fine, have it your way." The queen said angrily. "I haven't garnered enough power to freeze over the world, but I have just enough to freeze over this country. You say a thing about this, and I _will_ leave the scrolls and everything in this country shall be frozen, just like the Land of Earth. All vegetation will die, many children will cease to exist as they starve, and the ones that survive will work for me, and I'll train them from a young age to be my soldiers for any fool who dares resist me!" The queen said angrily, disappearing.

Kabuto looked around in his jail cell, thoughts wrestling in his mind about how he was going to inform the Kazekage about this. He didn't have a choice. They had to defeat her as soon as possible, even if Suna and all the other villages in the Wind Country would be frozen. And deep down, he really wanted to help the real queen, whose benevolence was almost contagious.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sheesh, from the way the temperature's been I wouldn't be surprised if it started snowing!" Mimi said figuratively to Rubi, the both of them just getting out of work. They were going to meet up with Ryu, and were waiting for him outside of the building for his arrival.

"Don't you think that's a bit exaggerated?" Rubi said, looking around for Ryu. "This guy always takes forever!"

"I wish I was exaggerating," Mimi said, considering that maybe she wasn't being so figurative. She didn't even have to wear her cloth over her head anymore. "Ryu never comes that late, I just think you miss him," Mimi joked.

"What do you mean by that?" Rubi said, eyeing her skeptically. "He's my best friend."

Mimi stifled a snort at the "best friend" statement. "I'm sorry, I just find that hard to believe. You guys act like a married couple sometimes. I have a feeling you guys are more than just friends."

"What?!" Rubi said. "No, never. We've just been friends since we were kids. We're that close."

"Yeah, right," Mimi said. "I suspect there's more going on between you…or maybe you're just oblivious."

"No, we're just friends!" Rubi said. "…With benefits," she added after a short pause, laughing.

"Ah, now it all makes sense. I don't think I could ever really do that with anyone."

"Why not? It's fun. No strings attached! It's quite refreshing." Rubi said. "You really should try it. You haven't seen _anyone_ since you got here. Don't tell me you're still moping around about that asshole up north!"

"No, not really. I'm pretty much over it. He's turning into that 'I don't know what the hell I was thinking' kind of ex."

"So then start looking around! Maybe a Suna guy would change your mind about men. You already have one guy friend that you can try," Rubi hinted.

Mimi rolled her eyes. Rubi knew she wasn't supposed to be talking to him anymore. At this point, she didn't know why she kept pushing Kankuro on her, but she ignored her comment. "Eh, a lot of the time I hear of situations where one person always catches feelings. It ends up making things complicated and ruins the friendship…but if you guys have been doing it for a while I guess you're an exception. I'd rather not take my chances with the whole friends with benefits thing."

"So you're really not talking to Kankuro anymore?" Rubi said.

"No, I'm not. We haven't spoken." Mimi said irritably. "Can you stop? You know we're not supposed to be talking."

"Really? Because Ryu's been telling me that he saw Kankuro leaving your building the other night when he was going home from training."

Ryu and his big ass mouth. She could kick him. "I don't know. Maybe Kankuro had to do a mission around the area," Mimi said, shrugging it off and playing dumb.

"What's UUUPPPP!" Mimi heard Ryu say loudly before Rubi could reply. He ended up tripping, and doing a forward flip to hide the fact that he tripped. "No one saw that."

Mimi and Rubi laughed. "You're really something else, Ryu."

"So what are we gonna do today?" Rubi asked.

"I was thinking of going for some Ramen. I finished training a little while ago and I'm starving!"

"It's been a while since I've had ramen," Rubi said. "It's a bit chilly today. I think a nice hot bowl of ramen will be nice. What do you think, Mimi?"

"Okay," Mimi said. "I've never had ramen before. It'll be nice to try something new."

Ryu and Rubi both had shocked looks on their faces.

"What do you mean you've never had ramen before?! That's crazy!" Ryu said loudly. "Rubi, you know what this means."

Rubi nodded. "We'll treat you to ramen today. You won't regret it. How on earth have you never eaten Ramen before?"

Mimi shrugged. "We never ate that stuff up north. We ate a lot of meat because of the cold, so it was rare that we would eat things like that. The clan that lives at the northernmost part of the island never even cooks their meat. We only got to eat vegetables and fruits during the summer, but the season was short, and we harvested as many fruits as we could and dried them so we can eat them as snacks during the colder months, but it didn't last the whole winter."

"Really? How on earth are you so skinny?" Ryu asked bluntly.

"Ryu, that's mean. Don't ask girls questions like that!" Rubi snapped, punching him lightly on the arm.

"No, it's okay…" Mimi said. "I know I'm small. Cold weather can burn a ridiculous amount of calories. Our diets were fit for the weather up north. And people told me my mom was really short and petite so I guess I inherited it from her. But now that I've been down here there are so many other types of foods to try so I haven't been eating as much meat as I usually do. Ever since I've been living here, I've been learning new recipes and trying new stuff out. I'll definitely want to try some ramen."

"Let's go!" Ryu said, grabbing the both of them. "Poor Mimi, you've been so deprived!"

"I think you're being a bit melodramatic, Ryu," Rubi joked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Oooh, I think I'll try the ramen with the pork in it. We don't eat a lot of pork up north." Mimi said.

"Wait, then what type of meat did you eat?" Rubi asked.

"Mostly fish, duck, sometimes seal meat."

"Seal meat? Ew, that sounds gross!" Ryu said, which got him a hard smack upside his head from Rubi.

"You're really culturally insensitive, you know that, Ryu?" Rubi said, annoyed with his comments.

"Sorry," he said, rubbing his head. "No need to smack me so hard."

"It's okay, Ryu," Mimi said. She found most of his comments funny. Kanjo reacted the same way to a lot of the things she would tell him about when she would tell stories of how life was up north, so she was quite used to it by now, and anticipated similar reactions like that from other people. Now that she thought of it, it's been a while since she's seen him and Rojikku around Suna. She hoped they were doing okay.

As their ramen was served, Mimi was overhearing a conversation three guys were having nearby as she ate. Well, she wouldn't really consider it eavesdropping being that they were so loud and people from the shop next to them could probably hear them as well. They seemed to be having an eating contest of some sort.

"I bet I can eat more bowls of ramen than you, Naruto!" A guy with red paint on his face said to a blond guy sitting next to him.

"No you can't! No one can! Wanna bet?" The blond replied.

And eventually Mimi saw they started ordering massive amounts of ramen, eating bowl after bowl quicker than Mimi could imagine was even possible. Jeez, she was getting full eating one bowl, which tasted really good. She couldn't imagine eating numerous bowls, though. They must have bottomless pits as stomachs, but guys will be guys, she supposed.

"Don't you think this is quite gluttonous, guys?" Another guy that was sitting with them asked. Mimi could barely see his face; it was covered with a huge jacket and a hood. He was eating his own bowl of ramen like a normal human being, thankfully. He seemed to be the voice of reason among the three.

"No, Kiba thinks he can compete with me, I'm not gonna let him try to beat me in a ramen eating contest!" The blond said loudly. "This ramen isn't as good as Ichiraku's, but it's still tasty!" He said.

That was a bit rude to say right in front of the people who were working there. She assumed people from the south were more open mouthed about their opinions, though. Kankuro and Temari were like that, too…and especially Ryu.

Mimi then heard a whimper near the guy with the face paint, and she looked down, seeing a very big dog with sad puppy eyes. Aw, poor baby. He probably wanted some ramen, but the guys seemed to be too invested in their…contest to notice.

Mimi made kissy noises to the dog, offering him a piece of her pork. He looked in her direction, rushing toward her and took the piece of pork out of her hand, licking her hand in appreciation after swallowing it whole.

"Aaaw, you're such a cutie pie," Mimi said, petting his head.

"Wow, that's a huge dog!" Rubi said, patting the dogs head as well. "Does he bite?"

The dog barked friendlily, wagging his tail, panting.

"Aaaaaaaw!" Mimi said, petting his fur. "He's soooo cute! I wish I could keep him!"

"He looks like he can swallow you whole, Mimi," Ryu said, eyeing the dog.

"Aw, don't say that Ryu, he's like a big baby!" Mimi said, playing with the giant dog.

"I wouldn't say so," Ryu mumbled. He could tell that guy was an Inuzuka, and he heard about their clan. They were known to be ferocious fighters. Those guys had to be from Konoha.

Mimi gave the dog more of her pork, and she giggled as he licked her hand as she was petting the dog. "You're such a good doggy!" Mimi said, playing with the dog for a while as he enjoyed all of the attention.

"Hey, where's Akamaru?" The guy with the face paint eventually said, looking around.

"Hah! I win!" Naruto said, finishing another bowl.

"Stop cheating! I was looking for Akamaru!"

"No, you lost!" The guy named Naruto said indignantly.

"Shino, you're the referee, tell him he's not competing fairly!"

"I didn't say I ever agreed to be the referee."

"Shino, you're no help, go home." Naruto said.

"Thanks, you're so nice to me," the guy in the long coat said sarcastically, peacefully finishing his bowl of ramen.

"Ah, there you are, Akamaru!" The guy with the face paint said, walking toward Mimi. "Sorry, I hope he wasn't bothering you."

"Oh, not at all," Mimi said, continuing to pet the dog apparently named Akamaru. "He's very cute."

"He seems to have taken a liking to you," The guy said, sitting down next to her.

Mimi smiled. "I guess so. I've always liked dogs."

"Really? That's awesome, me too!" The guy said. "I think they should have their own holiday."

Mimi giggled. "That would be fun!"

"Pssst, let's go get some drinks…" Rubi whispered to Ryu, who had already finished his bowl of ramen.

Ryu nodded in agreement, smirking, knowing Rubi's intentions. They both paid the bill, leaving a tip and sneaking off while Mimi was having a conversation with the guy.

"I'm Kiba, by the way," the guy said to Mimi, smiling to reveal teeth that looked oddly carnivorous. It was something Mimi wasn't familiar with, but assumed it was a trait of his clan or something, like his narrow pupils and face paint…or whatever the markings on his face were.

"I'm Himitsu, but you can call me Mimi," Mimi answered, giving a shy smile.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I know I should have approached this situation sooner," Gaara said to Shikamaru and Temari, who were sitting down in chairs on the other side of his desk at his office. "But I have been very busy due to the current situation at hand."

Temari sighed. "Why did you call us in here, Gaara? We have a bunch of paperwork to finish."

"As do I." Gaara replied. "But we need to get this out of the way now. We don't have much time to wait."

"What are you talking about?" Temari asked in anticipation, tired of her brother beating around the bush.

"We need to start planning your wedding, soon."

"What? We just got engaged." Temari said, looking down at her ring.

"With all due respect, don't you think you should be worrying about…other things at this current moment?" Shikamaru interjected.

"_With all due respect_, Nara, I _am_ dealing with that situation the best I can right now, and maybe if you didn't dare impregnate my sister out of wedlock, we wouldn't be discussing this at the moment. So I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself, because as Kankuro would say, you're still on my 'shit' list." Gaara said to him coldly, with Kankuro who was standing near him, nodding in agreement.

"Mine too," Kankuro added.

"You guys are being ridiculous." Temari said. "It doesn't matter if I got pregnant out of wedlock."

"It matters to us." Gaara said. "And now we need to try and fix your possibly tarnished reputation, since _someone_ didn't care to consider that," Gaara said, glaring at Shikamaru.

"I didn't know she was going to get pregnant!" Shikamaru exclaimed.

"Oh, so what did you expect to happen when you decided to fuck our sister, '_genius_'—"

"That's enough, Kankuro!" Temari said. "I can't believe you called me over here for this, Gaara. It's no one's decision but mine and Shikamaru's to decide when we're going to plan the wedding, and I think many people would agree that planning it now is _not_ the right time. And I find it insulting that you really think I 'tarnished' my reputation."

"We don't think you tarnished your reputation. We think he did." Gaara said matter-of-factly. "The best option would be to marry before you start showing."

Temari could not believe he just said that. They had a lot of nerve. "The both of you need to butt out of my personal life. This is none of your business! I'm old enough to make my own decisions!"

"I've already found a wedding planner for you. Kankuro, please drop this letter off at the address attached," Gaara ordered. "We just want what's best for you."

"Kankuro, don't send that," Temari said to him threateningly. "I'm older than you. You better listen to me!"

But he ignored her, walking out of the office. She didn't really expect that to work. They weren't children anymore.

"I don't care. I'm not interested in your wedding planner. Don't call me over to your office for this nonsense again. I'll get married whenever I please. Come on, Shikamaru." Temari said angrily, storming out of the office in a way that even intimidated Gaara. Shikamaru quietly followed, not bothering to even look Gaara in the face. He already felt his cold stare slicing through him, as if this whole ordeal was his fault. Shikamaru wanted to tell him it takes two to tango, but he didn't want to risk any more injuries. The shiner he received the other day was not something he was looking forward to again.

"Can you believe them? They have a lot of nerve to try to pull this crap." Temari said as they were going back to finish their work. "That was a complete waste of our time, don't you think?"

"It's not that much of a big deal to me." Shikamaru commented.

"Don't tell me you're taking their side!" Temari said, glaring at him.

"Well, I think Gaara has a point. What's so wrong about them trying to get you married to me as soon as possible?" Shikamaru said. "I say let them hire the wedding planner. Saves us the trouble anyway."

"You're no better than them," Temari said, sighing. "We have a huge threat going on right now. We can't be worrying about stuff like this at the moment."

"Problems are always going to pop up, Temari," Shikamaru said. "We can't let that get in the way of us."

Temari stood silent. He had a point. "I know…it's just, now it's not just me and you," she said, looking at her stomach, gently putting her hand over it. "I worry about…it."

Shikamaru took her hand, and there were no words needed to give her reassurance that they will get through this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kankuro dropped off the letter, now casually walking back to Gaara's office to see if there was any progress in the investigation going on. Gaara had sent the interrogators to ask Kabuto more questions, and he was keen to find out if there were any more leads. With the way the weather has been acting, they had to get to the bottom of this soon. As he was walking by, he heard a familiar laugh. Following the voices, he saw Mimi talking with...Kiba?

"Yeah, I'm a shinobi from Konoha. I have some stuff to take care of here. I come to Suna every now and then. It depends."

"I've heard so many good things about the shinobi from Konoha." Mimi said. "A lot of you guys saved the world from evil."

"Yeah, it was no big deal, really." Kankuro heard Kiba say, obviously stretching the truth. "Us Inuzukas nearly did it all by ourselves."

Bullshit.

"Oh really?" Mimi said. "That's impressive! I guess having the dogs gives you guys a huge advantage."

She actually believed that idiot. This whole thing was getting him upset.

"Yep. Dogs are awesome," Kiba said, petting Akamaru, who was sitting silently and wagging his tail.

"I agree. I used to take care of a lot of dogs when I used to live up north. They are vital when we want to get around in deep snow when we travel," Kankuro heard her say.

"Oh you're from up north?" Kiba asked.

"Yes."

"I figured you weren't from around here," Kiba said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you're very…exotic."

Mimi blushed. "Oh…well, I wouldn't consider myself that…"

"Would you consider letting me take you out on a date?"

The question caught Mimi off guard. She thought about it for a split second, and figured one date wouldn't hurt. Thinking about what Rubi was telling her earlier, it wouldn't hurt to try.

Without really thinking about it, Kankuro walked toward where Mimi and Kiba was.

"Hey, Mimi," Mimi heard someone say before she was going to answer the question.

"Oh…hey Kankuro," Mimi said not too enthusiastically. They weren't supposed to be talking, and he was boldly speaking to her in public. They could end up getting caught. She figured he did it because it's not like anyone from Konoha would know about that anyway. But still, it was reckless. There were still other people around.

"I see you've met Kiba," he said, sitting down next to her casually and ordering the first thing listed on the menu. "Long time no see," he said to Kiba.

"Um…hi." He said to Kankuro, not really sure what he was doing. They've barely exchanged sentences with each other, so this came off as a bit surprising to him.

"Uh…yeah," Mimi said, suddenly feeling awkward. "How do you guys know each other?"

"I saved him before he got his ass whooped by an enemy." Kankuro said, smirking at Kiba. "But he wouldn't have told you that. He probably would have elaborated some stupid story about how he turned down a position to be the next Hokage." he said sarcastically.

Kiba glared daggers at him.

"It's alright, though," Kankuro continued. "It's not like Mimi cares anyway. She's not interested in dating anyone, since she still isn't over her ex. Isn't that right?" He said, looking at her with an expression Mimi didn't quite get.

Mimi's eyes widened in shock at his audaciousness. She was speechless. Why would he embarrass her like that? Fueled with anger and annoyance, Mimi took off.

"What the hell was that about?" Kiba said angrily to him.

"What was what about?" Kankuro asked smugly.

"You just cockblocked me! Why'd you do that?" Kiba asked, not sure what his motive was for intruding on the conversation he was having. "I should kick your ass for that, dude."

"…Right." Kankuro said dismissively, shrugging off the threat. Kiba didn't intimidate him in the least.

"You're a fucking asshole."

"Hey, Kiba, I think we should get going. If we stay any longer, Naruto's going to give himself a stomachache," Shino said.

Kiba stood up and walked away reluctantly, knowing that Shino just used that as an excuse to avoid anything from escalating. He knew that Shino saw everything that just happened.

Shino snickered lowly after Kiba went back to sit with Naruto, who was trying to order another bowl of ramen, with Kiba trying to talk him out of it, saying he was going to get himself sick.

"What's so funny?" Kankuro asked, looking at Shino skeptically. He never really liked Shino much, to be honest.

"I think you should stick to wearing black. Green isn't a good color on you," Shino said, before walking away.

Kankuro scowled at him. What was he implying?

"Hey, look, it's snowing!" Kankuro heard Naruto say loudly, causing the civilians to mumble in confusion as they started to notice that he was right.

That wasn't good. He had to tell Gaara about this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Lord Kazekage, Kabuto is requesting you speak to him personally." The interrogator said to Gaara, who was standing reluctantly in his office, knowing he won't be very satisfied with this news.

"For what reasons?" Gaara stated.

"He insists that we won't believe him. We tried everything we could to make him talk, but he refused to answer without you there. He says it's for the safety of the village."

"Hn," Gaara said, thinking. Usually when Kabuto's trying to be helpful, it's because he's up to no good. "Did he act in any way that might seem suspicious?"

"No, sir. He acted quite the opposite, actually. He looked extremely bothered; his mind seemed to be elsewhere."

"I see. If he is refusing to disclose information to you, I will go." Gaara said, walking out of his office, only to see Kankuro waiting for him.

"Where were you? It took you quite long to drop off that letter." Gaara said to him.

"I got hungry."

"Hn," Gaara said, eyeing him skeptically. "Come with me. Kabuto might have important news that will be able to help us."

"About that," Kankuro said. "You know it started snowing outside, right?"

"It has? We must act soon. Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You do know this story is hard to believe," Gaara stated, arms crossed.

"Yes, I know, but I'm just telling you what I experienced." Kabuto said, leaning towards Gaara.

"Keep your distance," Kankuro said.

"Please hear me out." Kabuto said, leaning back in his own seat. "This is the only way we'll be able to defeat the queen. You say it's already started snowing. The whole country will be frozen over soon, trust me. That's what happened when I was getting here while I was in the Land of Earth."

"This sounds like something from a fairy tale. You can't expect us to take this seriously!" Kankuro said. "A satchel of rare magical seeds that'll take us to another world? What kind of quackery is that?"

"I'm just saying what was told to me."

"In a dream." Gaara stated flatly.

"I know it sounds crazy, but answer this: are there two shinobi that you're expecting to return that haven't returned yet?"

"There are many shinobi that leave and return from missions every day. This doesn't make you sound any more credible." Gaara stated, getting agitated.

"Fine, don't believe me," Kabuto said, giving up. "This is all the information I have for you. Do what you want with it. But I warn you that things will only get worse since I made the choice to tell you this. The queen is angry, and she's going to take her wrath out on everyone in the village."

"We're done here," Gaara said, walking away, Kankuro following him.

"What are you gonna do?" Kankuro asked Gaara, who was silent.

"…I have no choice but to do what I can to ensure the safety of the people. On the chance that what Kabuto was saying is the truth, we have to gather all civilians to a safe area. Many of them don't have the resources to survive the weather that is to come."

As they walked back outside, Kankuro and Gaara stood, shocked. Suna barely looked recognizeable as blankets of white covered the usual sandy ground, with the snowfall getting heavier by the minute.

"This is unreal…" Kankuro said.

"Lord Kazekage! There you are!" Matsuri called, rushing to Gaara. "Kanjo and Rojikku have finally returned! They said they have something important to give you. It has something to do with this snowfall."

"Did they tell you what it was?" Gaara asked.

"It's a small bag with seeds in it. I didn't understand the significance, but they said you would understand."

"Take me to them immediately." Gaara said. "Kankuro, make sure the shinobi gather all the civilians in a safe location. I'll take care of this."

Kankuro nodded, running off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"We tried to get here as fast as we could," Rojikku told Gaara.

"How did you get ahold of this?" Gaara asked, taking the satchel.

And that's when they told Gaara the story of how they got caught into a cursed ship, and how the captain had given it to them after they successfully escaped.

"This is just getting more unbelievable…" Gaara said. "Thank you, Kanjo and Rojikku. This has definitely given us the upper hand in this situation. As you can see around you…things aren't turning out well in our favor."

"Lord Kazekage," Gaara heard someone say from behind him. It was Shimo-sama, who was standing with some snow shinobi. They had been staying here, helping them with the investigation, giving them information on what was going on in their island to see if it would give them any leads. They must have come looking for him after seeing the unstable weather conditions in the village.

"I wanted to inform you that backup should be coming very soon, probably sometime today," Shimo-sama continued. "I had anticipated that something like this would happen a while ago. Luckily, we have shinobi that can endure this type of environment. They should be of assistance to you."

"Thank you, Shimo-sama." Gaara said. "And it seems we have also come up with a solution to this problem…however, it will prove to be extremely difficult."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Most of the people were gathered in a safe place, many of the sand shinobi assisting with bringing in more civilians.

"Kankuro, there is a school of children that are still not here," Sari said to him. "The shinobi sent to retrieve them has been gone for a while. I'm worried."

"I'll go look for him," Kankuro said, going out in the worsening blizzard.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mimi struggled to walk through the harsh winds that suddenly took over the village, snow already piling up at a dramatic rate. It started snowing soon after she left the ramen shop, and she got deeply worried, being that this was normal a hot desert where _it wasn't supposed to be snowing!_ Something horrible was going on, and she had no idea what to do. It seemed most of the villagers went in hiding, as everything was abnormally empty and barren.

Large icicles started penetrating the ground from up above in the sky, and Mimi barely dodged one.

"Okay, this is definitely not normal weather," Mimi told herself. Even up north where she was from, large icicles didn't start magically falling from the sky. She had to find a place to hide, fast.

"Argh…." Mimi heard in the distance. Someone seemed to be in pain.

Following the noise, she came across a man lying on the ground next to a school building, bleeding from his side.

"Oh no!" Mimi said, rushing to him. Seeing a large icicle next to him, she assumed he must have gotten hit with it.

"Don't worry about me; hide the children…" he struggled to say. "Please. I'll be fine. This injury is minor."

Looking up ahead, she saw a whole bunch of kids huddled in the corner of an alley near a school. So something bad did happen.

"Uh…okay! Here, just use this to stop the bleeding…I'll be right back," Mimi said, ripping a part of her loose clothing for the shinobi to use.

This was no place for children to be hiding in this weather. They weren't dressed properly for the weather and if she didn't find a place for them to hide quickly, they'll all get sick or freeze. But where was she going to hide them? Then she had an idea.

Urging the kids to follow her, she found an area that seemed sufficient enough to make a snow cave. Luckily, alone, she knew how to make one pretty fast, and with the help of the children, it would be quicker. Mimi told them to take turns digging in the snow with their hands, and eventually enough caves were made to hide all the children in them. She quickly covered the entrances enough for it not to be noticeable, but left a small opening for air to go in. This would do for now while she tried to help the other shinobi.

"And where do you think you're going?" Mimi heard a menacing voice say from behind her as she tried to run back to where the shinobi was injured.

As she turned around to see who it was, she saw a beautiful woman with a long dress and a crown, but her skin was tinted blue. A trail of ice was left behind her as she walked, and Mimi came down to the conclusion that she was the one who was at the bottom of this whole mess.

"Who are you?" Mimi asked.

"I am soon to be queen of this land," the woman said, lifting her left hand. "Where is your leader? I want to make a proposition with him."

"I don't know." Mimi said.

"Well then where are the other civilians?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying. There's a reason you're out here. You know something!" She said, her left hand starting to glow a light blue. "You're near a school…you have the children, don't you?"

"No," Mimi lied, worried that the queen would find them. They weren't far from the snow that she buried them in.

"Tell me where they are! I can use them as hostages to lure the leader of the village to me," The queen said, smirking. "I'll reward you nicely. You'll have a high position in my new empire if you work with me."

Mimi saw shards of ice being formed from her hands. "Tell me or suffer the consequences."

"I already said I don't know!" Mimi exclaimed, trying to think of a way to get away from the area so the queen will be less likely to find the children.

"That's too bad," the queen said complacently. "I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands."

"Not if you can't catch me," Mimi teased. "If you're able to catch me, I'll give you all the information you want."

"I don't have time for games!" The queen said angrily.

"Fine then, I won't help you." Mimi said in false confidence, and then started to run in the opposite direction of where the children were buried.

Mimi was able to run for a while, but eventually she saw that the queen was in front of her. This didn't surprise her. She just needed to be away from where they were at.

"That was too easy," The queen said, grabbing Mimi by her neck. "Now tell me what you know."

"I said…I…don't…know anything…" Mimi struggled to say.

The queen threw her down roughly, the snow cushioning Mimi from the hard ground.

"I don't like when people waste my time," she said, shooting a dagger of ice at Mimi.

"Ow!" Mimi said in pain as she felt something sharp go through her shoulder.

Mimi looked up to see a bunch of ice-like daggers aimed at her that the queen seemed to be controlling. She gasped, flinching as she saw them shoot in her direction.

But the daggers never hit her, and she heard a loud cry in pain from the queen instead. She looked up, to see that a familiar shinobi with white hair was standing in front of her, huge blue walls of chakra coming from his hands.

"Ryu…" Mimi said, looking in awe. The walls of chakra he made seemed to deflect the daggers right back to the queen. He must have been looking around the village to see if there were any civilians left outside.

"Are you okay?" He asked, noticing her wound.

"I'm okay," Mimi said. "There's a shinobi that's hurt," Mimi told him, clutching her shoulder.

"I took care of him. He's fine. Let me handle this," Ryu said, throwing a huge wall of chakra towards the queen, who had been stunned by the deflected attacks.

The queen stood up, and disappeared in a snowy fog before Ryu was able to plant another attack.

"She's gone," Ryu said, looking around for a threat.

After he was sure she wasn't coming back, he kneeled down to attend to her wound, leaving a shield around them just in case there would be any unexpected projectiles.

"I didn't know you could do this, Ryu," Mimi said, looking at the shield that surrounded them. "And you know medical ninjutsu too?"

"Just basic medical ninjutsu," Ryu said. "I'm a jack of all trades, master of none." He joked.

"Thank you, Ryu." Mimi said. She figured there was more to him than a lot of people gave him credit for. He wrapped her shoulder in bandages that he had on him.

"I need to take you to where the other civilians are. Rubi is worried about you."

"But I can't go just yet."

"Why not? It's not safe out here."

"I hid the children. When I found the shinobi on the ground, he told me to hide the children."

"He must have sensed that lady nearby. Show me where they are," Ryu said. "We have to take them to safety quickly."

He helped her stand up, and they walked to the area where she buried the children. The snow had stopped soon after the queen retreated, so it was easy for Mimi to locate them again.

"Where are they?" Ryu asked, looking around. "I don't see them anywhere."

Mimi dug open the entrances again, seeing the children huddled in the snow.

"Can we leave now, lady?" One of the children asked. "It's cold."

"What happened here?"

"Mimi hid the children from some blue lady," Ryu said, after seeing that it was Kankuro that found them and asked. "I overheard someone speaking in a weird dialect after I healed a shinobi who had gotten hit with one of the icicles. She was trying to kill Mimi but I scared her off."

That must have been the queen that Kankuro was told about. He looked at Mimi, who was starting to help the children get out of the snow, noticing the bandage on her shoulder.

"Looks like you came right on time," Kankuro said.

"Definitely. If I was one second later, she would have…gotten fatally injured."

Kankuro did not like the thought of that. "We need to get out of here."

Kankuro heard another voice say something he didn't quite understand.

"Oh no," Mimi said, standing in front of the children. She understood the threat. She had said that they weren't going anywhere.

The woman seemed to fit the description of what Ryu told him. Ryu automatically made a huge shield around everyone.

"You fell right into my trap. Of course I'd follow you to where you were going. Now tell me where your leader is, or die!" The queen said, both of her hands starting to glow.

"I don't know what you're saying, lady, but you're not gonna do anything to us!" Ryu said, throwing chakra from his hand that looked like a giant blue bullet.

_This guy's crazy! He's going to waste all of his chakra in no time if he keeps that up._ Kankuro thought as he saw Ryu attempt to attack the queen. He had this shield around them, too. Kankuro took out his puppets. This shield wasn't going to last long with the way this guy was fighting.

The queen dodged the bullet of chakra, but Kankuro saw that when he missed, the bullet returned back to Ryu, reabsorbing in his hand. Kankuro couldn't believe it. Because he had trouble preserving his chakra, he actually found a way to _recycle _it. He had to admit that was ingenious. That ability had a lot of potential.

"She keeps saying she wants to know where the Kazekage is," Mimi said. "That's what she said to me when I encountered her before, too."

"She must be stupid if she thinks we're going to tell her," Kankuro said.

The queen attempted to throw more ice daggers, but one of Kankuro's puppets blew fire and melted it, evaporating in the air. He tried to burn her with the puppet when it got close to her, but she immediately formed a tall, thick wall of ice that ascended from the ground. More walls of ice started to grow toward them. The shield protected them from above, but the giant ice blocks tossed them in the air as it hit them from below the ground, where they weren't protected. Mimi tried to get up quickly, gathering all the children to try and flee the scene. That was enough of a warning for Mimi to get the hell out of there.

"Nope…nope…no! Let's go, guys," Mimi said to the children, urging them to follow her away from the commotion.

But giant icicles surrounded her and the children, stopping them from going anywhere.

"Whoa, this is so cool!" One of the children said, in awe at the fight that was happening in front of them.

"Yeah, I wanna be a shinobi!" Another kid said.

"This is not cool!" Mimi said, shaking her head at their naiveté. They had no idea how dire this situation was. She tried to pull the icicles out from the ground, but it was no use.

"You shall suffer for your disobedience," The queen said, aiming a sharp ice dagger at Mimi. "This will lure the leader of this village to me for sure."

She had to think of something fast. The children could get hurt too! Looking around, Mimi threw a handful of snow at the queen's face through the gaps between the icicles, causing her to stumble back in surprise.

"Stupid peasant!" The queen said angrily, daggers surrounding their current prison of icicles.

But the queen got distracted again as the kids imitated Mimi's behavior, laughing as a bunch of snowballs hit the queen.

"Stop this!" The queen said angrily, distracted by all the snowballs. "You'll all pay for that!"

"Don't you dare!" Kankuro said, using one of his puppets to grab the queen and snap one of her wrists.

This caused the queen to attempt to retreat, but her going farther away made attacking easier for Kankuro. The queen ended up attempting to freeze Kankuro's puppets, but he took out another one while they were temporarily stunned. Kankuro fixed that issue from the last time, and they would be able to recover fairly quickly. Before the queen tried to take the opportunity to flee, Mimi saw giant blue balls of air being thrown at the queen. With one hand disabled and the other trying to freeze the puppets, she was only able to dodge them, but Ryu was able to catch two of them and put them in his pockets, throwing them back at her when he had the chance. She flew into a building through the walls, which crumbled to the ground. She disappeared before anyone else was going to chase after her.

Mimi looked in the other direction, trying to see where the blue balls of air came from. It couldn't have come from Ryu because he wasn't standing in the direction where they came from. Then she saw the same loud blond who was in the ramen place, standing with the Kazekage, Shikamaru, Matsuri, Kiba, the guy in the long coat, and some other snow shinobi, some of them having the silver eyes. Kanjo and Rojikku was there, too. She hadn't seen them for a long time.

"Damnit!" the blond said loudly. "She got away!"

"We probably would have had a better chance of catching her if you let me say my plan." Shikamaru said to Naruto, who immaturely crossed his arms stubbornly.

"We must formulate a plan before she returns," Gaara said.

"I suggest being careful, Lord Kazekage. You're the one she's looking for," Ryu said, walking to Gaara to report everything that happened while Kankuro was removing the icicles.

After seeing if the children were okay, Ryu and Shino gathered the children to take them where the rest of the civilians were.

"Wait," Kankuro said, taking Mimi by her hand as she was following Ryu and Shino. "I'm…sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Mimi asked, confused.

"About what happened earlier," he said.

Mimi had to think for a moment about what he was talking about, and then she remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him. After all of the events that just happened, it completely slipped her mind.

"Oh…yeah, you jerk." Mimi said apathetically.

"You don't care?"

"That's the last thing on my mind right now." Mimi said. "I think I'll let it slide, being that this whole desert is frozen over and I almost died like twice in the past hour."

"I'm sorry. It's my fault you got hurt. If I didn't upset you, you wouldn't have walked off."

"It's not your fault. Who would have predicted any of this craziness was going to happen? And you saved me once again. I think that makes up for it." She said, smiling.

"No I didn't, Ryu did." Kankuro mumbled.

"You did too." Mimi said. "Now stop being so hard on yourself. I thought that was my job."

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend!" Naruto said to Kankuro noisily, since they were standing some distance away from the others. "Wait 'till everyone back in Konoha hears about this!"

"That's not his girlfriend." Shikamaru said. "Stop jumping into everyone's business."

"Yeah right, then why's he getting all red!" Naruto said to Shikamaru.

"Enough with your nonsense, Naruto." Gaara said sternly. "We have more pressing matters at hand. Kankuro, I need to discuss another important mission."

"Don't get too hurt, okay?" Mimi said to Kankuro as Naruto was asking Gaara about the mission.

"If you promise not to do anything stupid." He told her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Mimi, things could have turned out badly for you today. Throwing snowballs isn't going to save you next time, which was really dumb. You could have just made her angrier."

"Well, what did you expect me to do? Some cool ninjutsu like what everyone else was doing? I had to improvise! There were children with me."

"It's not in your place to do that."

"Fine." Mimi said, crossing her arms.

"Midget," he teased.

"Are you guys done?" Shino asked impatiently, waiting for Mimi. Ryu had already left with all the children.

"Be careful," Mimi said, before walking away with Shino.

"I will."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Why do we need him for?" Kankuro asked Gaara, after letting him out of the jail cell and going to a room with a huge mirror.

"No need to be so rude," Kabuto scoffed, readjusting his glasses.

"I have no choice but to have him go with you. He knows where the queen is located, and he's the only one that can be able to communicate with her across dimensions. He might be of help to you while he's there."

"We're dead." Kankuro said, facepalming, not really having much faith in trusting a shinobi whose reputation was being a traitor.

It had been decided that Kankuro would be the one to go into the other dimension, with Kabuto. Gaara trusted that Kankuro would return, even more so than Naruto, who openly expressed that he was scared of "ghosts" at one point. Naruto would do best staying and keeping the queen at bay when she returned. Rojikku and Kanjo would accompany Kankuro and Kabuto. Their experiences left them immune to being scared of what was to come. Gaara knew nothing really scared Kankuro much, and they needed levelheaded shinobi to go on this mission. Kankuro felt this was best. Apart of him felt that shinobi from Konoha were too soft at times, and they couldn't take that chance.

"Remember, he was right about what he told us," Gaara said. "We have no other choice at this point. And he knows medical ninjutsu."

"If he tries anything stupid, I'll gladly show him what the inside of my puppets look like."

"Yeah, it's gonna be three of us against you," Kanjo said, agreeing. "So no funny stuff."

"Okay, let's get going." Rojikku said.

Gaara gave Rojikku the seed satchel, but nothing happened as he tried to toss one seed toward the mirror.

"What's going on?" Rojikku said, ready to accuse Kabuto of lying.

"We have to use the whole bag," Kabuto said to Rojikku, seeing his facial expression. "The goal here isn't to go through different parts of the world. It's to go to another dimension."

"But how will we come back?" Rojikku asked.

"…We have to hope we'll be able to come back on time before the portal closes. Due to its power, it'll be open for a while, but I'm not sure how long."

"Seems grim." Kankuro stated.

"Great, just when I thought we were in the clear about escaping a cursed ship. Now we have to risk getting stuck in a whole_ dimension_ with a bunch of this crap." Kanjo said. "Well, let's get this over with."

Rojikku sighed, taking a handful of the seeds, emptying the satchel. As he threw the seeds against the mirror, a large, dark green portal replaced their reflections.

"Gaara," Kankuro said, turning to his brother.

But Gaara put his hand on his shoulder. "There is no need for last words. I know you will return."

Kankuro nodded. "I hope you're right."

**A/N: What a lengthy chapter. Didn't expect it to end up thirty pages long!**

**Well, while writing this chapter, another story idea came to me. I want to write a story about Shino, but it'll be a bit more lighthearted than this story. Maybe I'll do a prologue or a first chapter before finishing this story, but I'm kind of a completetist and I don't want to get distracted writing another story while trying to finish this one. I also want to write an InoSai story too, with more drama than adventure. What do you guys think? O.O **


	10. Otherworld

**A/N: Next chapter's here!**

"Mimi, you're okay! Where were you?! I was so worried!" Rubi said, rushing to her when she spotted her with a medical nin who was assessing her shoulder wound after Shino dropped her off and left. "Oh no, you got hurt. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," Mimi said, not bothering to tell Rubi about the events that just happened. She didn't need to know that she almost got killed. "I just got hit by one of those icicles." That wasn't a complete lie.

"Wow, that sucks. The weather's getting so crazy! I wonder what's going on…"

Mimi shrugged. According to what she just witnessed, they were under attack by some crazy queen. It was kind of scary to think about. Her village had never been infiltrated the time she'd been living there, until Kankuro, Kanjo, and Rojikku came along. The snow shinobi were very good at keeping trouble at bay.

"I wish I knew," Mimi said.

"So…" Rubi said, smiling.

"So what?" Mimi asked, looking at her uncertainly.

"How did it go?"

"How did what go?"

"With dog boy! Come on, don't play stupid. You have to tell me how it went."

This girl can't be serious. "Rubi, there was just a _massive snowstorm_ in this hot ass desert, we're stuck in some crowded shelter with a bunch of other villagers who are probably freaking out right now, and you want to ask me how talking to some guy went? How do you think it went?"

"Hey, no need to get testy. It's not like there's anything we can do about it right now. I'm just trying to make the best out of the situation." Rubi said defensively.

"Are you not scared at all?" Mimi asked.

"A bit, but this has happened before. I remember the time the Kazekage protected us when some bad guy tried to blow up the whole village with some huge bomb that was falling from the sky. After that, I know the Kazekage can handle anything."

"Really? Wow, he must be pretty powerful to be able to do that." Mimi said, not entirely surprised. From what she's known about him, she expected he would be pretty powerful. She guessed risk of infiltration occurred more often down in the south if what Rubi told her was true. And based on the strength of the shinobi, Mimi believed it.

"So, I'm assuming it went badly. That sucks. You guys were getting along so well." Rubi continued.

Mimi sighed, shaking her head. She wasn't going to let it go. "It wasn't him that was the problem."

"Was it the dog?"

"No," Mimi laughed.

"Then what happened?" Rubi prodded, trying to think about what could have happened.

"Rubi, look at where we're at now. Do I really have to explain what happened?"

Rubi took a good look at Mimi, trying to figure her out.

"I bet it has something to do with Kankuro, that's why you don't wanna say anything." Rubi said, bursting out in laughter after she saw the look on her face. "So it did have something to do with him!"

"Why do you keep thinking he's involved in everything?" Mimi said. "I told you we don't even talk."

"What did he do?" She asked enthusiastically, ignoring her comment. Mimi presumed that at this point she knew they still talked anyway.

"You love drama, don't you," Mimi said dully, giving in. "He just walked up to us and he told Kiba that I still wasn't over my ex, which isn't even true anymore. I got mad and walked away, but I'm over it. After all this commotion, I don't even care why he did it. It's not the first time he's done something not so nice so it's not at all surprising. It blows, though. I was about to get asked out on a date."

"Get out, he seriously did that?" Rubi said, laughing. "Oh my God, that's too funny!"

"I don't see anything funny about it. Do you know how embarrassing that was?" Mimi said, sighing. "I don't even wanna think about it."

"And you're not mad at him?" Rubi asked.

"No. We talked it out." Mimi said. "No big deal. Better luck next time. There's more fish in the sea."

"Oh, that's cold blooded, Mimi." Rubi said. "I like it."

"What are you talking—ugh, just forget it." Mimi said, looking around. She wondered how long they were going to have to stay in here. After what happened earlier, she was pretty worried about Kankuro and the others. She wished there was more she could do.

Up ahead, Mimi saw Temari walking around, and started to walk toward Mimi when their eyes locked.

"Hey, is everything alright? What happened to your shoulder?" She asked.

"I just got hit by an icicle. It'll be fine," Mimi said. "How have you been? You seem bothered."

"I'm okay, I just wish things could be different." Temari said eyeing her skeptically. Mimi knew that she could tell she wasn't telling the whole truth. "It's not in my nature to just sit around and wait for something to fix itself. I'm at least doing my best to maintain order in here and prevent everyone from panicking."

"I know you want to help, but I think for now you should just lay low and not stress yourself out."

"I know you're right. I'm just worried."

"We all are." Mimi said empathetically.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sky was red, as if this world was overtaken by a dying sun. Looking around, it looked like they were in a dying, desolate world that had been destroyed long ago by evil forces. The trees looked dead and dreary, with an occasional rustling of dead, dried leaves dancing along the ground when a slow wind would pass. Even the wind blowing seemed lifeless, as if it lost its strength. The dirt on the ground lacked richness, with hints of withering plant life. From the looks of it, it didn't seem like much went on here. It was like they entered a post-apocalyptic planet. It was almost unbelievable that the portal to the world they came from was right behind them, and all it took was one step to enter this barren land.

"Happy place," Kankuro said disdainfully, the dried leaves and grass crunching under his feet as he started to walk.

"It's much quieter than I expected." Rojikku said.

"The Queen must be over there," Kabuto said, pointing at a peak in the distance. There seemed to be a tower that surpassed the peak of the mountain as well. That could be where the Queen is trapped. "We must be careful. There might be dangerous creatures around."

"Let's get going," Kanjo said.

_Kabuto, I can sense your presence in this land. Thank you for choosing to help me. Follow the mountain that you see. Please be careful!_ Kabuto heard in his head.

"You're right," Kabuto said to Kanjo. "We have to hurry."

As they anticipated travelling towards the mountain peak, they entered what was left of what seemed to be woods, filled with black, withered trees that blocked the already dim sky. Eventually the woods got to the point where everything was pitch black, where the little sunlight that was available in this world wasn't able to enter the tree filled lifeless woods.

"You couldn't think of another way to get to this mountain?" Kanjo said to Kabuto. "How on earth are we gonna get there if we can't see anything?"

"There was no other way through," Kabuto said. "We don't have the time to attempt trying to find another route."

"It's alright; I have a solution to this." Rojikku said, using a jutsu to send chakra to his hands, causing them to glow brightly. It was able to give them some visibility of what was ahead of them, which was a barely trekked dirt road, as if it used to be used often at some point long ago.

But as they continued to walk along the narrow, abandoned path, there were sounds in the distance, and low growling. This caused them to walk slowly, Rojikku scanning the environment around him to anticipate the unexpected.

In an instant, the four shinobi were surrounded by giant, wrinkly, hairless beasts, with multiple eyes all over their head, and pincers with green venom pouring out of their mouths. Though severely deformed, their bodies had humanoid characteristics, though hard to see through the worms that were crawling between holes that were on their skin, showing decay.

"What the hell is that?" Kankuro said, before a piercing screech came from one of them, attempting to attack him.

In a moment, a whole group of these creatures tried to attack them from all directions. Rojikku tried his best to keep the light bright enough for everyone to be able to see, but they had to rely on their instincts for the most part. Though they were very strong, they were very slow and easy to dodge. They didn't seem very smart either, and it didn't take long to defeat them. But Kankuro started to feel a searing pain in his left hand. When he looked at it, he saw his skin was torn, and you could see some of his bones through the wound. He must have gotten bitten and didn't notice.

"Oh, that looks bad," Rojikku commented, flashing the light he was making over Kankuro's hand.

"I can treat that," Kabuto said, taking Kankuro's hand.

"Bravo," a voice said, clapping indistinctively within the bushel of dead trees.

"Who said that?" Kankuro said, looking around. "It sounds like you, Kabuto."

"But I'm right here." Kabuto said uneasily, looking around to see where the voice came from.

Walking over the pile of the now dead creatures, appeared a sick looking, emaciated figure…that looked just like Kabuto, instead his skin was coming off in different parts of his body, and you could see his skull on one half of his face. The disturbing part was the fact that his eyeball was still there, moving around eerily.

"It's not often I come across such great skill," he said. It was kind of unsettling to see him talk.

"Who are you?" Kabuto asked.

The man laughed. "Who am I? I am you."

"You're not me," Kabuto said in disgust. "We won't be able to be in the same world."

"Well, of course you would be able to come here with ease. I can't say so much for myself…I mean, look at the state of this place. Look at the state I'm in…a fate so many horrible people suffered. Over time, our will has weakened. We won't survive well in other worlds like you can." He said, laughing. "But don't feel so bad. At least I didn't turn into any of those monsters that you've killed. It means there's some good in you." He teased, walking in front of him.

"Get away from me," Kabuto said earnestly, holding a kunai to his face threateningly.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he said casually. "It's quite fun to watch all of you suffer. I was hoping to have those flesh eating demons get to you, but I should have known that it would take more to defeat my counterpart and his comrades. How about we play around for a bit?"

In a second there was a ring of purple fire surrounding them, slowly getting smaller, the fire getting more restless, and hotter. Kanjo tried to blow it away with his jutsu, but it resurfaced. Kabuto's counterpart started to laugh hysterically.

"It looks like you guys are going to have a long and gruesome death," he said. "A shame to see you go so quickly. I would have expected a better fight."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Matsuri, stay here and guard the portal. Make sure no one goes through, and prepare for anything that might come back out," Gaara ordered. "I will leave Shino here with you as backup."

Matsuri nodded, Shino joining her next to the green portal.

Going back outside, Gaara saw many buildings destroyed, others crumbled straight to the ground. He saw giant ice pellets knocking down more buildings, and he rushed to the source of the destruction, with the others following him.

Gaara didn't expect to see what he saw. There was a bunch of humanoid…ice people that were causing the destruction. He was going to have to summon more sand shinobi to deal with this.

"We have to find the source of where this is coming from," one of the snow shinobi said.

"It's some kind of weird jutsu, kind of like Naruto's," Kiba commented. "But we can get rid of these things, right Akamaru?"

"Wait, that's it," Shikamaru said, Gaara understanding his idea.

"Naruto, use your shadow clones. We'll try to find the queen. She has to be around here somewhere." Gaara said.

"I think you should stay with Naruto," Shikamaru said to Gaara.

"And why is that?" Gaara asked. "It is my job to get to the bottom of this."

"Yes, but we have to find a way to subdue her first," Shikamaru explained. "She's trying to look for you. This could be a ply for your attention. We don't know what she has up her sleeve. We're going to have to keep you away to play it safe. Since the sand is frozen, all you have is the sand in your gourd to defend yourself. If we jump into this, it could turn out badly. We can leave you with Naruto and some snow shinobi so you won't be left alone while we try to find her."

Gaara nodded, agreeing with Shikamaru. One of the silver eyed snow shinobi looked around, trying to sense where the source was coming from. He then pointed East, saying something.

"He said he can see her form," one of the other snow shinobi translated.

"How does he know?" Shikamaru asked.

"Their eyes. They can see temperature, and can be able to detect different forms of snow easily. Let's follow him," the snow shinobi replied, walking behind his comrade with the kekkei genkai.

Eventually, they saw the queen standing in the distance. As she saw them approaching, she made an array of large icicles. Before Shikamaru could think about what to plan next, the snow shinobi that were with them with the kekkei genkai were able to make a wall of ice to stop the attack, which then continued to subdue the icicles, rendering them useless. The snow shinobi then trapped the queen in a cube of ice with a wave of his hand. Shikamaru took the opportunity to restrain her with his shadows just in case she tried to run away, secretly appreciating having these guys on their side.

The queen was easily able to break out of the ice, shards shattering in all directions, and though she had some ability to fight off Shikamaru's shadow jutsu, her movements were still heavily restricted.

"I know where your villagers are hidden." The queen said in a broken southern dialect. "I will not hesitate to shatter the shelter they are hiding in," she threatened, raising her now healed hand to a durable building in the distance.

"That is not necessary," Shikamaru heard Gaara say from behind him, Naruto standing in front of him in a fighting stance, with an army of sand shinobi ready for battle behind Gaara. "There is no need to put my people in harm's way. You have not informed me what you want."

"Ah, so you are the leader," the queen said, putting her hands in his direction, glowing blue. "If this is the village that was able to set me free, then your residents must be highly qualified to work for me. You can either surrender the easy way or the hard way. Join me or die."

"You gotta be crazy if you think we're gonna give in that easily, blue lady," Naruto said angrily. "You don't know who you're messing with."

Gaara's sand lingered out of his gourd, ready for a fight. He may not be able to use as much sand as he wanted, but that didn't threaten him in the least.

The queen, agitated, fought herself out of the jutsu that was restraining her, tossing a huge boulder of ice towards Shikamaru.

"You're a nuisance," she said to him. "Don't try to stun me with your tricks."

Before the boulder could hit him, a shield of sand blocked the large boulder from hitting him, and it fell limply to the ground in front of him. This lady was extremely troublesome, but he had a feeling they had to be really careful with her. Not many people can fight off his shadow jutsu with such ease. She was holding back. He saw the queen rush towards Gaara with inhuman speed. He knew she was going to be too fast to try and catch her in his shadow again. But Naruto was still standing in front of Gaara. Surely he would be able to stop her.

But before she was able to get any closer, two tornadoes dashed at her, throwing her on her back, sliding into a building, causing the walls to crumble. Kiba and Akamaru were able to push her away with their fang over fang technique.

"You are outnumbered," Gaara said to her, crossing his arms. "There is a whole army behind me. Your efforts to overpower the village are futile."

The queen got up, teleporting in front of Gaara, but she found she wasn't able to move again. The boulder she threw at Shikamaru provided him with a very convenient shadow, and Shikamaru attempted to suffocate her with the shadows. But even with the added effort, the queen fought even harder to escape his jutsu, backslapping him roughly. He flew a couple of feet, landing roughly on his back on the frozen ground.

"You're nothing but an annoyance," She said to him, tossing daggers of ice, but Kiba was able to push him out the way on time.

Before Naruto was going to attack, the queen trapped him in a cage of ice, leaving Gaara open.

"I see you want to do this the hard way," The queen said, standing in front of the expressionless Kazekage. "I'm done playing games with you and your comrades."

"Based on your actions toward my village, you are not somebody I want to waste my time negotiating with." Gaara said, burying her in his sand.

"G-get me out of this!" The queen struggled to say, getting crushed by the pressure of the sand.

Gaara ignored her request, attempting to crush her quickly, but she was starting to fight back, resisting the increasing pressure.

"You are quite the challenge. I can see why you would be the leader of this village," the queen said. "But I will _not_ be defeated that easily. Do you really think I'm that weak? I'm determined to destroy this world, just like mine was taken from me!"

Breaking away from Gaara's sand, the queen grew, and grew, and grew. Her skin turned a scaly white, her arms and legs turning into large, scaly legs with long claws. She grew a long tail, and her face changed, eliminating any evidence that the monster towering over them was a woman beforehand.

"It's a dragon," one of the sand shinobi said.

The white dragon roared loudly, using its tail to hit the building that all the villagers were sheltered in. There were loud screams as some of the villagers got tossed in the air with the large rubble.

"Attack!" One of the sand shinobi yelled, and the whole army threw various weapons, trying to weaken the dragon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The purple ring of fire kept closing in on them, but Kankuro realized it didn't affect his strings of chakra. Using that to his advantage, he was able to attack Kabuto's counterpart from a distance, causing the flames to wane. Poisoning him, the counterpart fell to the ground, the dying skin that was left of him starting to decay more.

Kabuto took the opportunity to attack his counterpart, preferring to take him out of his torture...and also because he didn't want to stay around to see himself disintegrate like a corpse. His eye sockets emptied into soulless holes, but before he took his last breath, he looked straight at Kabuto, laughing.

"This is all for naught," he said self-righteously. "The Creator has abandoned us…" And his smug smile faded, an empty shell of a body being left behind. Eventually, all the fallen bodies disappeared into dust as the wind blew. It left a very eerie feeling in the air.

As the four shinobi walked on, none of them could shake the eerie feeling that even though it seemed vacant for miles, there was an uncanny feeling of them being watched. There were even moments where they felt someone breathing down their necks, but the breath was cold and shallow, and when they turned around, nothing was there. There were noises, like laughing children, which were loud enough to be audible, but faint enough for you to question if it was your mind playing tricks on you. Eventually, it turned into manifestations of shadows they would see in the corner of their eyes, as the fading sun slowly started to sneak back into the woods again.

As they tried to focus on their goal, it was like the woods, or whatever was trying to play tricks on them, did not give up. It seemed to be taunting them, but Rojikku and Kanjo seemed undisturbed. Kabuto put all his effort to remain stoic and keep going, and Kankuro was just annoyed.

Then they saw something standing in the road some distance straight ahead. It was a short figure, and it stood still. Ultimately, the figure started taking slow, slight steps toward them, and as it got closer, they got to see that it was a young, pale boy, who was in a giant, baggy shirt, looking heavily malnourished. He started to walk faster toward them, and Kabuto and Kankuro got uneasy. The boy was walking abnormally, as if he were possessed by something.

He kept walking faster, until he got less than a few feet away from them, then he stopped abruptly. As he looked up at them, they noticed that the boy had no eyes in his eye sockets.

"Please give me something to eat, I'm hungry." He said robotically, putting his arm out.

None of them moved. They knew he was not a boy. Ever since they saw him in the distance, they got a weird feeling that this was something evil, like the boy was a part of the aura of the whole forest itself, as if the forest they were walking in had its own sentience.

The boy put his arm down limply, after noticing that he wasn't going to be given anything. He stood there awkwardly for a minute, looking at the four of them.

"You should offer a payment for trespassing here," he said in a voice that made them apprehensive, and he instantaneously ended up less than an inch in front of them, his mouth opening like a gaping black hole, screeching, as if bringing the whole forest alive and aware. The dead trees in the forest started moving and convulsing, its roots moving toward them. They tried to run, but the roots of the tree had them grounded in one area, growing upwards, attempting to pull them into the ground. But in a flash, the forest was back to normal, as if nothing happened.

"It's trying to mess with our heads," Rojikku said. "Let's keep going."

The hallucinations slowly diminished as they ignored them, and soon after the trees started to become sparse. They ended up getting to the end of the forest, and now entered a wasteland roaming with monsters. Some of them tried to throw explosives at them, others tried to swallow their weapons whole. And then there were others that threw poison and fireballs. Between the four of them, they were able to fight them off as long as they didn't attract too much attention to themselves. They saw the mountain slowly getting bigger up ahead, and they knew they would be able to reach the mountain pretty soon.

But Kabuto couldn't help but think back to what he saw in the forest. He couldn't shake the fact that his counterpart looked that way in this world. What was this place anyway? A parallel universe? What did that really show about him? Was he really that far gone? And what about the other three? Where were their counterparts? But it confused him. Maybe it was just the forest messing with his head. Was he the most vulnerable out of the four of them? Rojikku and Kanjo didn't seem intimidated by anything in the least in this world. And Kankuro seemed less bothrered than he did. It wouldn't surprise him if he found out the siblings had no hearts. They remained stoic when it came to a lot of things, the Kazekage more than the other two. Then again, none of them saw a deformed, twisted version of themselves. He couldn't help but wonder if it actually meant anything.

Lost in his thoughts, Kabuto didn't notice when they started to approach the foot of the mountain. Looking up, they saw a structure at the peak. That must be where the queen is located. They were able to ascend the mountain easily using the simple climbing technique, but upon entering the castle, there were three huge doors, one on each wall. They were all locked, but the door standing in front of them was the only one with a giant keyhole. They tried attacking the doors and picking the locks, but none of them would budge.

"I'm climbing the castle to the top of the tower," Kanjo said. "We don't have time for this shit."

"Don't be foolish." Kankuro said. "That's a deathwish."

"Being in this whole damn dimension is a deathwish." Kanjo said. "It wouldn't matter much."

"Kankuro is right," Rojikku interjected. "We can't guarantee that the queen will be at the top of the tower. We don't know her location in this castle. We need to think this through logically. From the way it looks, we're going to have to work with the way the castle is. We can't break through the walls or any of the doors, indicating that there is probably some type of otherworldly chakra that's inhibiting us. But it seems as if there are clues to get us through."

"Like a puzzle," Kabuto said, looking around. "Look, there are four statues up ahead. One of them is out of place."

Kankuro pushed the heavy statue next to the other three, and it descended slightly into the ground. The tile under the statue was like a giant button, opening two doors on the side walls, the one with the giant keyhole staying locked shut. Rojikku and Kanjo went through one door, while Kankuro and Kabuto went through the other one.

Once Kankuro and Kabuto entered the room, the door slammed loudly behind them, locking them inside. They immediately started getting bombarded with a huge army of hairy, one-eyed monsters that threw spikes in all directions. Luckily for Kankuro, he defeated them easily, Kabuto helping. But then they felt the whole room shaking.

A huge part of the ceiling caved in, causing a giant, gaping hole to form above them. A giant one eyed monster that almost touched the tall ceiling in height landed on the ground through the hole, shaking the floor beneath them, causing them to lose their footing. It looked around with its big eye, blinking stupidly when it saw Kabuto and Kankuro. Sensing them as a threat, it puffed up its round body, its fur raising, showing giant spikes with fire at the tips. They spent a good amount of time running and dodging its attacks, trying to figure out how to defeat it since it seemed to be impermeable to their attacks.

"It has to have a weak spot," Kankuro said, dodging an onslaught of deadly spikes.

"You're right," Kabuto said. "There's small shiny thing at the top of its eye."

"I'll aim for it," Kankuro said, using a puppet to aim at the spot.

As expected, the monster let out a cry in pain as Kankuro hit it. At first, it seemed to infuriate the monster, but they noticed it had more trouble attacking the more they hit it at its weak spot. Eventually, the monster caved, solidifying into a rocky substance, and then crumbling into a pile of dust on the ground. The only thing left was whatever was shining on its head, and a giant key. Kabuto took the key, and Kankuro kneeled down to pick up a small green jewel. It looked like a piece of broken glass.

_Don't touch that jewel. It is dangerous!_ Kabuto heard a voice say in his head. _I am trapped in one. You are close to finding me. Continue on to the next room._

"Leave it there. We have no idea what it can do," Kabuto said. "Let's go."

Kankuro put it down, surprised that Kabuto would leave it alone. If it was on the monster, it had to be potentially powerful, and was something he would normally be interested in. But Kabuto's been acting weird since they left that forest.

The door reopened, and they were able to return to the room they were in before. Rojikku and Kanjo were waiting for them.

"Are you guys alright? What was going on in there?" Rojikku asked.

"There was a monster. We were locked in until we were able to defeat it." Kankuro said.

"That blows. We just had to figure out some complicated puzzle. I let Rojikku figure it out." Kanjo said. "We managed to get this key, but it's not able to open the door. Kabuto, can you heal my finger? I got a small cut."

"You're going to make him waste his energy over a small cut?" Rojikku asked. "You're being ludicrous."

"The key we have must be the one to open it, then," Kabuto said ignoring Kanjo's stupid request, putting the giant key in the lock.

The door clicked, opening.

"I wonder what this key is for," Kanjo said, looking at the key he was holding.

"It's probably a key to something else in this castle." Rojikku said, walking through the unlocked door.

"Look, there's a box with a keyhole up ahead," Kankuro said, walking toward it, following Rojikku.

Kanjo rushed to the box, using the key to unlock it. Inside was a map.

"Not this shit again," Kanjo said in frustration.

"At least this one's comprehensible," Rojikku said, looking at the map inquisitively. "It looks like it'll be one of the rooms in this castle."

"But there are no other rooms to enter from this point on," Kankuro said.

But the floor started to ascend, and it brought them to another floor above them, since this room had an unnaturally high ceiling. Up ahead was a maze, which had constantly changing walls. Looking down at the map, Rojikku noticed that the map would change depending on how the walls would change.

"We need to be careful not to get separated. We could end up getting lost easily." Kabuto said, as he looked over to see the map.

The others agreed, making sure to stay near so they won't get separated once the walls decided to change unexpectedly. When this happened, it was almost as if starting over, since they had to reroute their path, but they were finally able to get to the end of the maze. At the end of the maze stood a large, intimidating door. It opened on its own once the four shinobi exited the maze. Kabuto felt the queen's presence on the other side of the door. As Kankuro and Kabuto walked through, the door immediately slammed shut again, locking Kanjo and Rojikku outside. Based on what happened earlier, the both of them didn't take that as a very good sign.

Up ahead, there was a large, green jewel floating. Kabuto noticed the queen was inside, eyes closed, as if frozen in time, and unconscious. Before he attempted to rush to the jewel, a giant eagle flew in front of them, blocking them in the way of the trapped queen. The gust of wind threw them back as it spread its large wings, flying around the huge room. It aimed itself at Kabuto, grabbing him with its huge talons. Kabuto tried to fight him off, but it ascended at a high altitude, dropping him. Kankuro caught him using his chakra strings, bringing him to safety before he plummeted to the ground.

The large eagle continued to make strong winds, making it hard for them to attack the eagle. The eagle then swooped downward to try and catch Kankuro, but he dodged it, predicting his moves from what he had done before.

"There's a jewel on his head, too," Kabuto pointed out after getting a good glimpse of its face as it missed.

"How are we going to be able to aim at that one?" Kankuro said. "It keeps flying around everywhere. It's way too fast."

"We're going to have to attack it head on," Kabuto said. "I'll be able to reach it with your help."

"That's risky," Kankuro told him.

"I know," Kabuto said, looking up at the angry eagle. "But we have to do it."

The eagle started to dive down at them again, and Kabuto took the opportunity to reach up to the eagle as high as possible with Kankuro's help. If anything went wrong, he would probably get torn in half by its strong beak, but he didn't have a choice. He already made it this far. He had to do this.

Waiting for the right moment, Kabuto prepared a chakra scalpel strike. If he hit it with exactitude, the jewel should shatter. But the chances of it were slim.

The bird got closer, and Kabuto focused on the middle of its forehead. If he missed, this would all be in vain. And when the moment came, it was like time went in slow motion as he striked the bird.

Kabuto felt himself being shoved in the air as the bird bumped into him, and he thought he missed. He thought this was it. But he felt himself get gently put down on his feet. He stood, rubbing his arm where the eagle had shoved him roughly. There was no sign of serious injury. As much of a relief as that was, he looked up towards the high ceiling of this room in the castle to see if he missed.

The eagle's movements got slower, and eventually it spiraled to the ground, weakened heavily as the jewel shattered into smithereens, almost as if it were evaporating from existence. To Kabuto's and Kankuro's surprise, though, the large eagle did not turn into a pile of dust like the last monster they were put to fight. Instead, it…_talked_ to them. But its beak wasn't moving. It was communicating to them telepathically.

_I thank you for freeing me from my imprisonment._ The big bird said to them._ I apologize for my aggression. The Queen of this land, Queen Oyko, had attached the jewel to me before she left to a parallel universe, to be able to stop anyone who tried to save the queen that she switched places with. These jewels hold tremendous power in them, and were heavily sought out for in our world. But not many can be able to control the power it granted them. Regardless, it still caused greed, corruption, and war. Eventually, our ancestors from the stars had had enough of our behavior, and came down to collect all the residents of this planet who were not swayed by greed and power, and took them to another planet to start a new life, for this planet was dying as a result from all the wars. The rest of the residents who were corrupt were left on this planet to die with it when the time comes, and they turned into what their hearts represented. Queen Oyko…she wasn't ready to start a new life on another planet. She couldn't let go of the beauty that her land used to have, and refused to leave. I told our star brothers that I will choose to stay with her, and try to convince her otherwise, but to no avail. After they left us behind, she had gotten resentful, and used magic to take her to a time where she would get a second chance to rule once again in a similar world. At this point, she wanted revenge, and found her counterpart, switching places with her as she took advantage of her naiveté. She was angry, and assured that if her own world can't survive, then she will cause misery and destroy all others that she was to come across. But the time has come. Hopefully, when you return your queen back to your world, she will decide to finally come with me to the new planet that awaits us, and repent her actions._

"It doesn't seem like she's gonna repent anytime soon from the looks of it," Kankuro commented, remembering the fight he had with her.

_I have faith in her._ The eagle said.

Kankuro nodded. He could empathize with the bird. He himself had faith in someone who was thought to be far gone from any form of morality, and it turned out well. He was very proud of what Gaara has become. But from an outside perspective, it was very hard to believe.

The eagle looked at the large jewel with the sleeping queen inside, and they saw that the giant jewel started to crack, the pieces eventually crashing to the ground like a broken mirror. A soft, glowing light surrounded the beautiful Queen Hokkyo, her eyes opening as it faded away, her feet touching the ground.

"Thank you for saving me, Kabuto," Queen Hokkyo said to him. "I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you or your comrades. I have learned from my mistakes in dabbling in something I was not prepared for. I have put our own world in danger, but now is the time for all this to end. We must return to the portal and hurry back."

_I sense the portal may be closing. I will fly all of you. You will not make it back on time on foot._ The eagle said, or thought, to be exact.

The door to the chamber reopened, Kanjo and Rojikku running inside.

"What happened?" Rojikku asked, looking at the giant bird standing majestically before him, confused.

"Let's go, we have the Queen." Kabuto said, helping the queen sit on the eagle's back, following suit after helping her. "The bird will be flying us back. He said the portal might be closing soon."

"How do we know to trust him?" Kanjo asked.

_I have my own motives in helping you. I would like my queen to return where she belongs. She has no place in your world._

"Did he just talk to me in my head?" Kanjo asked.

"We don't have much time," Queen Hokkyo said. "We must go."

Kankuro was still trying to process all the eagle had said…and trying to process that this giant bird was even communicating with him through thoughts. In reality, he felt it as an invasion of his privacy. He would much prefer people don't intrude in his head. And in this parallel universe, magic was rampant, but the world is almost dead as well. He started to wonder if his counterpart had left to the other planet. What about Gaara's? Or Temari's? Kabuto's had stood, but he didn't lose himself like the humanoid monsters did. That must have meant something. It was actually pretty sad to see the world in this state. Had things gone differently, his world could have suffered the same fate. They've had pretty close calls in the past.

"Come on!" Kanjo said to Kankuro. "Unless you wanna stay here."

"I'm coming," he said, placing himself on the large bird.

The ceiling was high, and the bird ascended through a large opening at the top. It appeared that this castle had many floors, but they were destroyed and in disarray. They ended up surfing through the red sky, and looking down at the land below them was really a wakeup call of how destroyed this world was. There wasn't a sign of plant life. Everything was dead and dry, sucked out and wrinkled like a prune. It was as if the life force of this planet was disappearing.

"I think I'm gonna be airsick," Rojikku said as the eagle quickly soared through the dim skies.

"You better not," Kanjo said threateningly.

As they landed in front of the shrinking portal, the eagle looked up in the sky in anticipation.

_They are coming,_ the eagle said to them._ They have returned for us. They too have faith that the queen will change. The people need her leadership._

Looking up, Kankuro saw a bright light appear in the sky. It got bigger, and as it descended to the ground, he saw that it was some type of huge airship as the lights turned off. It made no sound, and no one seemed to exit the ship. Of course, their visit wasn't for them. It was for that evil queen.

"Thank you for your help," Queen Hokkyo said as everyone got off of the eagle.

The eagle started to glow, and turned into a man standing before them.

"Captain," Kanjo and Rojikku said at the same time. It looked just like the captain they had encountered in their journey, but he had light blue hair instead.

"I'm not the captain that you think I am," the man said to them, no need for telepathy in his human form.

"You're the counterpart of him in this universe," Rojikku said to him.

He nodded. "You must all go, the portal is about to close. Unfortunately, we won't see each other after this, and I think that is best. There is no need to mingle between parallel universes. It is dangerous and messes up the multiversal balance."

"How do you know we won't see each other anymore?" Kanjo asked.

"The satchel of seeds you used to get here were the last of the seeds. They did not originate in your world. They originated in this one and many magicians would travel and trade between parallel universes over the centuries. As this world descended into chaos, the seeds got more and more scarce. There are none left. I wish you luck in your future endeavors."

"I wish you luck in yours," Kabuto said, then looking at the queen. "You first."

The queen bid goodbye to what used to be the giant eagle, taking one last look at the odd ship, and the world she was stuck in for so many years, and walked towards the quickly shrinking portal which was getting ready to close.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Oh, God, hide me," Mimi said to Temari, standing behind her, taking advantage of her height.

"Why?" Temari said a bit annoyed. She didn't like seeing acts of cowardice.

"There's Shimo-sama over there. I don't want her to see me."

"Why not?"

"Because I got a little rude the last time we spoke. And she thinks I'm crazy."

"Stop being a wimp. So what if she sees you? If she has something to say, take that as an opportunity to talk it out," Temari said, putting Mimi to sit down next to Rubi, who was now talking with Sutera, a coworker from their job.

"Come on Temari! I helped you out when you wanted to hide from your brothers!" Mimi exclaimed.

"And look how that turned out," Temari said flatly. "My fiancé ended up with a black eye. I think I learned my lesson."

Mimi groaned. She had a point. It never helped to run away from your problems. They just ended up sneaking up on you again, with a huger issue than if you would have just faced it when it was needed.

"Himitsu," Mimi heard a familiar voice say. Damn, she saw her.

"Hello, Shimo-sama…" Mimi said, looking up at her.

"Come with me, I want to speak with you."

Mimi reluctantly got up, and they walked to a slightly less packed part of the shelter they were in.

"I want to apologize for how I've been acting, Shimo-sama." Mimi started to say. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I just think that I need some time on my own to figure myself out. I do appreciate your concern."

"That's not what I wanted to speak to you about," Shimo-sama stated. "I've come to understand that I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make them drink it. The most I can do is hope that you remain safe and make wiser decisions in the future."

"What did you want to speak to me about, then?" Mimi asked.

"I wanted to say that…sometimes things never turn out the way one expects. What turned out to be animosity between two villages has turned into comradeship. I plan to take the opportunity to become allies with this village if they are successful in having our queen return. It would be a good way for our village to be less isolated from outsiders, and may also be beneficial for our bank, and hopefully avoid any infiltrations from stronger villages."

"That's great, Shimo-sama," Mimi stated. But why was she telling her this?

"If this turns out well, you might be able to stay here," Shimo-sama stated, as if knowing what she was thinking. "And I will welcome you back to the village freely, in hopes that you won't do anything like this again. I can see that you meant no harm, but I hope you will be more mindful of the welfare of others next time you are troubled. You can always come to me if something is bothering you."

"Oh, well, thank you," Mimi said. "I don't think I should come to you for my…silly problems, though."

"I live for my villagers, Himitsu. I don't think any of your issues are silly."

Mimi nodded. Before she could reply, there was a huge crash, the walls crumbling. There were screams everywhere.

"Shimo-sama, hide!" Mimi said, pushing her to a corner that was unscathed.

Before Mimi was able to find a place to stay safe, a huge, white scaly thing swiped through the whole place, tossing people everywhere. What was that?

All Mimi could remember was the white thing hitting her and a couple of others, and they all crashed through the wall, soaring in the air before hitting the ground.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Wake up, wake up!" Mimi heard someone say tearfully as she was being shaken.

It took a couple of seconds for Mimi's eyesight to sharpen, as everything was blurry. She sat up, shaking her head, looking around.

"Are you okay?" Mimi heard. Looking at the person who said it, she saw it was Rubi.

"What just happened?" Mimi said. She saw she was sitting outside on the snow, with a couple of other villagers she didn't recognize surrounding her.

"We all got hit by the tail of that thing!" An old male villager said, pointing at the white dragon that was now flying over the sky, trying to freeze everything in sight with ice coming from its mouth.

"Holy crap," Mimi said, looking up in the sky. Not too far from the dragon, was the Kazekage, standing on a patch of sand in the sky that he had in his gourd. There seemed to be others standing on the sand too.

"Is everyone alright?" Rubi said.

"Yeah, but I don't think we should stay outside," a blonde villager with bright blue eyes said. It was Sutera.

"Where are we going to go?" An old woman asked.

"Look, that building over there is unscathed." Mimi said, looking ahead. "We can stay there for now."

They all rushed to the building quickly, scared that they were going to freeze to death from the dragon's ice breath. Rubi opened one of the doors inside the building, barging in the first room she came across. To their surprise, there were two people already there.

"What are you guys doing here?" Matsuri asked them. "You were supposed to stay in the shelter!"

"Ease up, lady, we got tossed out the shelter by some monster's tail and landed on some snow nearby." An adult male villager that was with them told her. "We were just trying to find a place to stay until the Kazekage takes care of that dragon that's flying outside."

"There's a dragon outside?" Shino asked. "That's not something I would have expected."

"I know the Kazekage can handle this," Matsuri said. Even though Mimi agreed with her, she could see the worry on her face.

"It would be safer if you just stay in this room with us for now," Shino said to the villagers. "Just stay away from this mirror."

"Why does it have a green circle in it?" Sutera asked.

"That is none of your concern," Shino said matter-of-factly.

"It's getting smaller," Matsuri said, looking at Shino.

"There's still time. Nothing is set in stone yet." Shino assured Matsuri.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Taking the battle into the air, Gaara stood with Naruto and Kiba on his sand, facing the white beast before them. Many sand shinobi were throwing weapons from below, and though it was enough to stun the dragon, it was no match for defeating it. It turned into a long battle of dodging and offensive attacks that didn't seem to hurt the dragon at all. The dragon soon started to get the upper hand, managing to hit Kiba, tossing him off of Gaara's sand. Gaara was able to catch him, but he had been knocked out. Gaara put Kiba down on the ground, Akamaru taking him to safety.

Gaara aimed a dagger of sand at the dragon's chest, and it cringed as it hit her.

"Hey look, there's something on its chest. I'm gonna hit it," Naruto said.

Naruto made a bunch of clones, using rasengans to attack surrounding the dragon, but the dragon was able to fight the clones off. However, this was just a distraction, as Naruto took the opportunity to throw a rasenshuriken at the dragon's chest.

Gaara caught Naruto, safetly bringing him back to where he was located. The item on the dragon's chest shattered, and it transformed back into a woman, who plummeted straight to the ground.

Walking to where the woman was located, they saw her on her knees, sobbing.

"This shouldn't have happened…all my power, gone." Queen Oyko said, disappointed, glaring up at Gaara and Naruto as they approached her. "It's not fair. Why do you get to keep your land?! Why did I have to suffer and lose mine! Everyone left me to live in some other planet. And now my world is going to rot…you will never know what it's like. You're lucky," she said, devastated.

"You think we don't know what it's like to risk losing all we have?!" Naruto said angrily, showing her his bandaged arm. "This is only one sign of what I had to go through to make sure life as we know it didn't end. Our moon threatened to crash into our world, destroying the rest of us. But we've won as many battles as we've lost. And you know what we did when we lost? We didn't stop believing. We didn't give up just because something didn't go our way. So many of my friends died in battle. I grew up not knowing who my parents were. No one liked me. I know what it's like to not have anything, but that didn't make me stop believing, and it doesn't help to take your anger out on others!"

The Queen stared at Naruto, speechless.

"I used to be like you." Gaara said, walking to her. "The way you're channeling your anger will only make you feel emptier. You say your people left to another planet as your current one has been in disrepair. You are their leader, but as a leader, your role is to serve their needs, not yours. A new beginning is what they wanted. They need you, and you should return to them. I assure you choosing a new beginning was as hard a decision for them as it was for you. But you have to think of the greater good of the people who chose you as their queen. Sometimes, you have to accept letting go and starting a new chapter of your life. No one said it would be easy."

The Queen stood up slowly.

"…But how will they ever forgive me for abandoning them?"

"It is your job to earn their respect and have them gain trust in you. I say it from experience." Gaara said to her.

There was a calm silence, and then Queen Oyko spoke.

"I'm sorry. I will fix everything," she said as she noticed she started to fade. "It seems my counterpart has been successful. Thank you. I won't forget this."

Once she disappeared, there was a flash of light, and Suna was back to normal, filled with sand instead of snow, most of its buildings repaired, as if nothing had happened.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"The portal is about to close," Matsuri said. It started to dawn on her that if this portal closed, she would never see them again. She knew Gaara would be devastated if Kankuro didn't return.

But just as Matsuri started to worry, she saw someone come through the portal, and a flash of light surrounded everything for a quick moment right when she entered the room. Matsuri noticed the drop in temperature disappeared. It wasn't cold anymore. A second later, Kabuto followed.

"Who are you?" Matsuri asked the queen, holding her johyo.

"She is Queen Hokkyo. There is no threat here." Kabuto said.

"Where are the others?" Shino asked.

"They should be coming now."

"Are these guys just seriously walking out the mirror?" Rubi mumbled to Mimi.

This time, Mimi had to agree with Rubi's commentary. Some things were just plain odd.

"Makes you wonder what kind of trippy stuff the Kazekage has to go through behind closed doors." Sutera chimed in.

After Kabuto came through the portal, Rojikku and Kanjo came through the mirror, followed by Kankuro. By the time they all returned, the portal closed right afterward.

"What are they doing here?" Rojikku asked, looking at the villagers at the opposite end of the room.

"The dragon had destroyed part of the shelter, and they got tossed out. They ran in here for safety." Shino said.

"Just our luck," the old man said grumpily. "Surprised my back didn't give out from that damned dragon."

"There was a dragon?" Kanjo asked.

"That's what they're saying, but it seems like things have calmed down." Matsuri said.

The door to the room opened, Gaara and Naruto walking inside.

"It seems our mission has been a success." Gaara said, not surprised to see Queen Hokkyo and the four shinobi standing before them. "We have some things to take care of. What are these civilians doing here?"

"I hate repeating myself," Shino mumbled, before explaining the situation once again.

"Matsuri, take these villagers to see a medical nin for assessment. I will look for your village elder." Gaara said to Queen Hokkyo.

"Shimo-sama is here?" Queen Hokkyo asked. "She must be so disappointed in me."

"Come with me. We will discuss this somewhere else."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After assuring the safety of the civilians and much discussion between the residents of the Land of Snow and the Kazekage, Shimo-sama, Queen Hokkyo, and the snow shinobi were standing at the gate, ready to leave Suna as allies.

"Thank you so much for your help. We will be forever grateful for your service." Queen Hokkyo said to Gaara. "The curse has finally lifted, and hopefully my land will have a more promising future. We will be more than willing to assist you if you ever need anything."

Gaara nodded.

"I admit I was skeptical of you at first, Lord Kazekage," Shimo-sama said. "But you run your village very well. I'm happy that I've finally gotten the real Queen back. We couldn't have done this without you."

"I'm glad to hear that, Shimo-sama. I look forward to our comradeship in the near future." Gaara said.

"And what of you, Kabuto? Are you going to come with us?" Queen Hokkyo asked.

Kabuto nodded and turned to Orochimaru, who had manifested in his full form again after the scrolls disappeared when Queen Oyko returned to her dimension. He had initially been on watch by Suna's ANBU when he reappeared, but it was noted that he was still heavily weakened, and had no motivations or interest in infiltrating the village, and now was currently being escorted out with Kabuto.

Kabuto requested to speak to Orochimaru personally for a moment, and Gaara approved…with one ANBU listening in on their conversation. He reminded himself to inform the Hokage about this.

"Lord Orochimaru, I have some personal issues to take care of. I won't be leaving the village with you."

"I see. I didn't expect us to part ways so suddenly." Orochimaru said, snickering. "But I suppose I saw this coming one day."

His dismissive response didn't surprise him. "Well, it is quite a relief that you're not upset."

"I have no reason to be upset. You've given me what I've needed." Orochimaru said, walking toward the group near the gates of Suna again, indicating their conversation was over. But he turned to say one more thing. "And you will return to me. You always do. I expect we will cross paths again one day."

Kabuto smirked. "Maybe."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Days later, Mimi did what she could to go back to her normal life, despite the parts of the village still being damaged because of what happened.

"I'm so glad things are back to normal, for the most part." Rubi said to Mimi, the both of them sitting on the roof of Rubi's building. "I told you the Kazekage could handle this."

"Yeah, but I think we should go back downstairs. The sun is beaming and I forgot my sunblock." Mimi said.

"Let's stay for a couple of more minutes," Sutera said. "I want to appreciate the sunlight we weren't getting when it was getting colder. I don't know how you lived like that in the Land of Snow, Mimi. I don't think I'd ever be able to do it."

Mimi shrugged.

"So, do you guys have any plans? We should all have a relaxing day in the bathhouse." Rubi said.

"That sounds like a great idea," Mimi said.

"I have a date later, but we can go early. I can freshen up and exfoliate." Sutera said.

"With who? The janitor?" Mimi asked, half joking.

"Ew, no! That guy's a creep. You know the guy that was with us when we were in that room with the mirror?"

"Oh, him. He's okay looking," Rubi commented.

"Yeah, him. Well, we started talking and he asked me out."

"He seems like a douche, to be honest." Mimi said. "I don't like the way he talked to Matsuri."

"Don't listen to Mimi," Rubi said. "She has no luck with men."

"Hey! That's not true!" Mimi said. "Well…maybe a bit."

"Like, oh my God! You should totally get your nails done for the date!" The three girls heard someone say in a fake female voice.

All the girls jumped, unaware that someone else was listening.

"Ryu! Don't scare us like that! We didn't see you!" Mimi said.

"And stop listening in on our conversations!" Rubi said. "What are you doing up here anyway?"

"I should be asking the three of you that." Ryu said. "You're not supposed to be up on the roof of these buildings."

"I live here, what's the big deal?" Rubi said. "You're the one that's trespassing."

"It's a safety hazard." Ryu said. "And I'm not 'trespassing.' I was assigned to do rounds on the village to search for anything out of the ordinary and to see which buildings still need repairs."

"You should stop by later when you're done." Rubi suggested.

"For what? So I could try on makeup and talk about the cute guy I met in the market last Tuesday?"

This got laughs out of Sutera and Mimi.

"Hey, stop fooling around. We're far from done." Kankuro said to Ryu, jumping from another building nearby.

"I'm not fooling around. Charming the ladies is an everyday mission." Ryu said in mock seriousness.

Mimi could barely see the look on Kankuro's face since he was wearing a long hooded cloak, but she supposed it wasn't amusement. For some reason, this made the three girls laugh harder.

"I'm gonna beat the crap outta this guy," Kankuro mumbled. "Let's go."

"Oooh, do I hear a challenge?"

"Yeah, whatever," Kankuro said indifferently.

Mimi could have sworn she saw rainbows in the background as Ryu's gray eyes grew big out of endearment.

"Y-you accept to challenge me?" Ryu said, eyes watering dramatically, hugging him before he answered his question. "He finally sees me as an equal!" Ryu said vividly, tears running down his face.

"Alright already! Get off of me!" Kankuro couldn't believe someone could act so stupidly.

Kankuro heard Mimi laughing hysterically again as he pushed Ryu off of him. He's never heard her laugh like that. He found it so cute.

"Why don't you accept me?!" Ryu said theatrically.

"Can you be serious for one minute?" Kankuro said irritably. "We have work to do."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forget you would have preferred a specific someone to hug you," Ryu said, raising his eyebrows.

He could strangle this idiot.

"Leave him alone, Ryu," Rubi said, still giggling. "Come on, let's go back downstairs," she said to Sutera and Mimi.

Sutera and Mimi followed Rubi to the stairs, walking past Ryu and Kankuro. Mimi was wearing a loose tank top and shorts. She rarely showed her legs. They were slim and pale, but looked smooth—

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Ryu said. "'We have _work_ to do,'" he mocked, before jumping to another building, laughing.

Kankuro made a mental note to tell Gaara not to have him work with Ryu anymore. He gave him a headache.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gaara looked through his papers, deep in thought. He was backed up on some work, but Temari was helping him look over some of his documents next to him on his desk.

"The village is going to be on a tight budget for a while because of all these repairs," he said, looking through some documents.

"I wonder what would have happened if some of the buildings didn't get fixed after the queen left." Shikamaru commented, who was also in the office, looking over paperwork regarding the future Chunnin exams.

"I'm just thankful that some of the buildings repaired after the Queen returned to her dimension." Gaara said. "It's going to be hard to manage the damage that remained. I don't want to know what I would have had to do had all of the buildings needed to be repaired."

"Do you know exactly how much needs to be fixed?"

"I'm working on that now. I sent Naruto and the rest of them to do a rough blueprint of what needs to be fixed. They should be ready to leave back to Konoha whenever they please afterward."

"About that…" Shikamaru said uncomfortably.

"What?" Gaara said, already anticipating that he probably was going to hear something he didn't want to hear. Temari suddenly started to bury herself in more of the documents.

"Me and Temari have decided that it would be best if we were to leave to Konoha with them."

"No." Gaara said bluntly, starting to read his documents again.

"We want to get married over there. Getting married here isn't really…ideal at the moment." Shikamaru continued.

Gaara looked up at him angrily. "Why not? Are you implying that you don't think Suna is safe?"

"There was a close call. She was in that shelter and she almost got hit. Luckily, she ducked out of the way." Shikamaru said. "But that's not what I'm saying, and that's not the reason why we want to leave. A situation like that could have happened at Konoha too."

"What is the reason, then?" Gaara asked. "And I don't want to hear it from you. Temari, is this what you want?" He said, turning to her.

"Yes," Temari sighed, putting aside the documents. "I want to make a closer relationship with his family. I think that's what's best for us and for my future child."

Gaara stood quiet for a moment.

"How long do you plan on staying there?" He finally asked.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Gaara said, knowing that if she's deciding to leave to Konoha at this point, she would be staying there at least until the baby was born, or even a bit longer than that.

"I just…don't know right now, Gaara."

"Very well, then." Gaara said, standing up. "Just don't forget that you have family here, too. I'm going to take a break." He said, walking out of his office, leaving Temari and Shikamaru there with an awkward silence.

Temari sighed. "I knew he was going to react like this. He thinks I'm going to leave him and Kankuro."

"This is going to connect our families, Temari. He'll see that soon enough."

**A/N: Already started writing the next chapter. =]**


End file.
